TRUST and Treachery, Wisdom, Folly, <br />Madness, Mirth and Melancholy, <br />Love and Hatred, Thrift and Pillage, <br />All are housed in one small village. <br /> <br />And if such be Life’s mix’d being, <br />Where may Peace from ruin fleeing, <br />Find a shelter and inherit <br />All the calm of her own merit? <br /> <br />In a bark of gentle motion <br />Sailing on the summer ocean? <br />There worst war the tempest wages <br />And the whirlpool’s hunger rages. <br /> <br />In some lonely new-world bower, <br />Hidden like a forest flower? <br />There too, there, to irk the stranger, <br />Stalks the wild-eyed spirit Danger! <br /> <br />Vainly would she build by roving <br />Or in hoping or in loving, <br />Or in solitary spaces, <br />Having in all times and places, <br />Or in none a home of beauty <br />In the fearless heart of Duty, <br />Dwelling there and seeing <br />God’s right hand all things decreeing.<br /><br />Charles Harpur<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-flight-of-peace/
