WE sneer and we laugh with the lip–the most of us do it, <br />Whenever a brother goes down like a weed with the tide; <br />We point with the finger and say–Oh, we knew it! we knew it! <br />But, see! we are better than he was, and we will abide. <br /> <br />He walked in the way of his will–the way of desire, <br />In the Appian way of his will without ever a bend; <br />He walked in it long, but it led him at last to the mire,– <br />But we who are stronger will stand and endure to the end. <br /> <br />His thoughts were all visions–all fabulous visions of flowers, <br />Of bird and of song and of soul which is only a song; <br />His eyes looked all at the stars in the firmament, ours <br />Were fixed on the earth at our feet, so we stand and are strong. <br /> <br />He hated the sight and the sound and the sob of the city; <br />He sought for his peace in the wood and the musical wave; <br />He fell, and we pity him never, and why should we pity– <br />Yea, why should we mourn for him–we who still stand, who are brave? <br /> <br />Thus speak we and think not, we censure unheeding, unknowing,– <br />Unkindly and blindly we utter the words of the brain; <br />We see not the goal of our brother, we see but his going, <br />And sneer at his fall if he fall, and laugh at his pain. <br /> <br />Ah, me! the sight of the sod on the coffin lid, <br />And the sound, and the sob, and the sigh of it as it falls! <br />Ah, me! the beautiful face forever hid <br />By four wild walls! <br /> <br />You hold it a matter for self-gratulation and praise <br />To have thrust to the dust to have trod on a heart that was true,– <br />To have ruined it there in the beauty and bloom of its days? <br />Very well! There is somewhere a Nemesis waiting for you.<br /><br />George Frederick Cameron<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-way-of-the-world-7/
