It is something to have wept as we have wept, <br />It is something to have done as we have done, <br />It is something to have watched when all men slept, <br />And seen the stars which never see the sun. <br /> <br />It is something to have smelt the mystic rose, <br />Although it break and leave the thorny rods, <br />It is something to have hungered once as those <br />Must hunger who have ate the bread of gods. <br /> <br />To have seen you and your unforgotten face, <br />Brave as a blast of trumpets for the fray, <br />Pure as white lilies in a watery space, <br />It were something, though you went from me today. <br /> <br />To have known the things that from the weak are <br />furled, <br />Perilous ancient passions, strange and high; <br />It is something to be wiser then the world, <br />It is something to be older then the sky. <br /> <br />In a time of sceptic moths and cynic rusts, <br />And fattened lives that of their sweetness tire <br />In a world of flying loves and fading lusts, <br />It is something to be sure of a desire. <br /> <br />Lo, blessed are our ears for they have heard; <br />Yea, blessed are our eyes for they have seen: <br />Let the thunder break on man and beast and bird <br />And the lightning. It is something to have been.<br /><br />Gilbert Keith Chesterton<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-great-minimum-2/
