HIS TEMPTATION <br /> <br />No fear lest praise should make us proud! <br />We know how cheaply that is won; <br />The idle homage of the crowd <br />Is proof of tasks as idly done. <br /> <br />A surface-smile may pay the toil <br />That follows still the conquering Right, <br />With soft, white hands to dress the spoil <br />That sun-browned valor clutched in fight. <br /> <br />Sing the sweet song of other days, <br />Serenely placid, safely true, <br />And o'er the present's parching ways <br />The verse distils like evening dew. <br /> <br />But speak in words of living power,-- <br />They fall like drops of scalding rain <br />That plashed before the burning shower <br />Swept o' er the cities of the plain! <br /> <br />Then scowling Hate turns deadly pale,-- <br />Then Passion's half-coiled adders spring, <br />And, smitten through their leprous mail, <br />Strike right and left in hope to sting. <br /> <br />If thou, unmoved by poisoning wrath, <br />Thy feet on earth, thy heart above, <br />Canst walk in peace thy kingly path, <br />Unchanged in trust, unchilled in love,-- <br /> <br />Too kind for bitter words to grieve, <br />Too firm for clamor to dismay, <br />When Faith forbids thee to believe, <br />And Meekness calls to disobey,-- <br /> <br />Ah, then beware of mortal pride! <br />The smiling pride that calmly scorns <br />Those foolish fingers, crimson dyed <br />In laboring on thy crown of thorns!<br /><br />Oliver Wendell Holmes<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/st-anthony-the-reformer/
