Society and the World

A Lady with a Lamp [Florence Nightingale] shall stand In the great history of the land, A noble type of good, Heroic womanhood.

As unto the bow the cord is, So unto the man is woman, Though she bends him, she obeys him, Though she draws him, yet she follows, Useless each without the other!

By the shores of Gitche Gumee, By the shining Big-Sea-Water, Stood the wigwam of Nokomis, Daughter of the Moon, Nokomis.

All your strength is in your union. All your danger is in discord; Therefore be at peace henceforward, And as brothers live together.

Sail on, O Ship of State! Sail on, O Union, strong and great! Humanity with all its fears, With all the hopes of future years, Is hanging breathless on thy fate!

Build me straight, O worthy Master! Staunch and strong, a goodly vessel.

Something attempted, something done, Has earned a night’s repose.

Something attempted, something done, Has earned a night’s repose.

Under the spreading chestnut tree The village smithy stands; The smith a mighty man is he With large and sinewy hands. And the muscles of his brawny arms Are strong as iron bands.

His brow is wet with honest sweat, He earns whate’er he can, And looks the whole world in the face, For he owes not any man.

Let us, then, be up and doing, With a heart for any fate; Still achieving, still pursuing, Learn to labor and to wait.

Lives of great men all remind us We can make our lives sublime. And, departing, leave behind us Footprints on the sands of time.

I am the owner of the sphere, Of the seven stars and the solar year, Of Caesar’s hand, and Plato’s brain, Of Lord Christ’s heart, and Shakespeare’s strain.

Obey the voice at eve obeyed at prime.

Wilt thou seal up the avenues of ill? Pay every debt, as if God wrote the bill.

God said, I am tired of kings, I suffer them no more; Up to my ear the morning brings The outrage of the poor.

Today unbind the captive, So only are ye unbound; Lift up a people from the dust, Trump of their rescue, sound!

Today unbind the captive, So only are ye unbound; Lift up a people from the dust, Trump of their rescue, sound!

By the rude bridge that arched the flood, Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled, Here once the embattled farmers stood, And fired the shot heard round the world.

By the rude bridge that arched the flood, Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled, Here once the embattled farmers stood, And fired the shot heard round the world.

Love not the flower they pluck, and know it not, And all their botany is Latin names.

There are two laws discrete, Not reconciled— Law for man, and law for thing.

Things are in the saddle, And ride mankind.

Good-bye, proud world! I’m going home; Thou art not my friend and I’m not thine.