Explore "This Is My Task" by Ella Wheeler Wilcox on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
When the whole world resounds with rude alarms / Of warring arms, / When God's good earth, from border unto border / Shows man's disorder, / Let me not waste my dower of mortal might / In grieving over wrongs I cannot right. / This is my task: amid discordant strife / To keep a clean sweet centre in my life; / And though the human orchestra may be / Playing all out of key- / To tune my soul to symphonies above, / And sound the note of love. / This is my task.
When by the minds of men most beauteous Faith / Seems doomed to death, / And to her place is hoisted, by soul treason, / The dullard Reason, / Let me not hurry forth with flag unfurled / To proselyte an unbelieving world. / This is my task: in depths of unstarred night / Or in diverting and distracting light / To keep (in crowds, or in my room alone) / Faith on her lofty throne; / And whatsoever happen or befall, / To see God's hand in all. / This is my task.