“O FRIEND, BEGIN A LOFTIER SONG.”

O friend, begin a loftier song.

Confusion falls upon your mind;

A sense of evil makes you blind;

“What use,” you say, “is it to be?

I know not GOD, GOD knows not me!”

O friend, begin a loftier song.

In other minds you place no trust:

You tread your laurels in the dust:

You see no Future, Hope has fled,

Youth had its dreams, but Youth is dead.

O friend, begin a loftier song.

“The sweet ideal of past years

Speaks in my songs, they are my tears:

I'll weep no more, I'll sing no lays

To bury Youth for idle praise!”

O friend, begin a loftier song.

Come through the gateway of the Past,

Dear friend. The world will hear at last

The little songs the poets sing:

Do thou with anthems make it ring!