The Trust.

    We steal the brawn, we steal the brain;
    The man beneath us in the fight
    Soon learns how helpless and how vain
    To plead for justice or for right.
    We steal the youth, we steal the health,
    Hope, courage, aspiration high;
    We steal men's all to make for wealth -
    We will repent us by and by.

    Meantime, a gift will heaven appease -
    Great God, forgive our charities!

    We steal the children's laughter shrill,
    We steal their joys e'er they can taste,
    "Why skip like young lambs on a hill?
    Go, get ye to your task in haste."
    No matter that they droop and tire,
    That heaven cries out against the sin,
    The gold, red gold, that we desire
    Their dimpled hands must help to win.

    A cheque for missions, if you please -
    Great God, forgive our charities!

    We steal the light from lover's eyes,
    We hush the tale he has to tell
    Of pure desire, of tender ties -
    No man can serve two masters well.
    So loot his treasury of pride,
    His holy hopes and visions steal,
    His hearth-fire scatter far and wide,
    And grind the sparks beneath your heel.

    A cheque will cover sins like these -
    Great God, forgive our charities!

Jean Blewett

Jean Blewett was a Canadian author, journalist, and poet. Born in Scotia, Ontario, she became well-known for her poetry and was awarded the part of lyrical poet at the World’s Fair in Chicago, 1893. Her notable works were often published in literary magazines. Besides poetry, Blewett also wrote stories and worked as a journalist, gaining considerable respect in both fields. She passed away in Chatham, Ontario, in 1934. Her legacy remains a significant part of Canadian literary history.

Jean Blewett

For He Was Scotch, And So Was She.

Jean Blewett, Simple Poetry

Fool's Luck.

Jean Blewett, Simple Poetry

The Tryst.

Jean Blewett, Simple Poetry

The Lake Shore Road.

Jean Blewett, Simple Poetry

English

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Charity.

("Je suis la Charité.")

[February, 1837.]


"Lo! I am Charity," she cries,
"Who waketh up before the day;
While yet asleep all nature lies,
God bids me rise and go my way."

How fair her glorious features shine,
Whereon the hand of God hath set
An angel's attributes divine,
With all a woman's sweetness met.

Above the old man's couch of woe
She bows her forehead, pure and even.
There's nothing fairer here below,
There's nothing grander up in heaven,

Than when caressingly she stands
(The cold hearts wakening 'gain their beat),
And holds within her holy hands
The little children's naked feet.

To every den of want and toil
She goes, and leaves the poorest fed;
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Epistle To The Labouring Poor.

All you who turn the sturdy soil,
Or ply the loom with daily toil,
And lowly on through life turmoil
For scanty fare,
Attend, and gather richest spoil
To soothe your care.

I write with tender, feeling heart,
Then kindly read what I impart;
'Tis freely penned, devoid of art,
In homely style,
'Tis meant to ward off Satan's dart,
And show his guile.

I write to ope your sin-closed eyes,
And make you great, and rich, and wise,
And give you peace when trials rise,
And sorrows gloom;
I write to fit you for the skies
On Day of Doom.

What, though you dwell in lowly cot,
And share through life a humble lot?
Some thousands wealth and fame have got,
Yet know no rest:
They build, pull down, and scheme and plot,
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Despair.

    We catch a glimpse of it, gaunt and gray,
    When the golden sunbeams are all abroad;
    We sober a moment, then softly say:
    The world still lies in the hand of God.

    We watch it stealthily creeping o'er
    The threshold leading to somebody's soul;
    A shadow, we cry, it cannot be more
    When faith is one's portion and Heaven one's goal.

    A ghost that comes stealing its way along,
    Affrighting the weak with its gruesome air,
    But who that is young and glad and strong
    Fears for a moment to meet Despair?

    To this heart of ours we have thought so bold
    All uninvited it comes one day -
    Lo! faith grows wan, and love grows cold,
    And the heaven of our dreams lies far away.

Jean Blewett

The Gang

    Our fathers must have sinned: we pay for it!
        Through them the base-born tribe that sold their king
    Sneaked into power, and in high places sit,
        And do their will and wish in everything;
    For they may rob and kill, grieve and disgrace
    All who are left alive of Eiver's race.

    They seized with daring guile on rank and pelf,
        And swore that they would never bend a knee
    Unto the king: they robbed the Church herself:
        They stole our princes' lands, and o'er the sea
    They packed those princes, or drove them away
    To barren rocks and fields that have no clay.

    That spawn of base mechanics! who could ne'er,
        Though Doomsday came, by any art be made
    Noble, are noble now, and have no care:
    ...

James Stephens

The Men Of Old

Well speed thy mission, bold Iconoclast!
Yet all unworthy of its trust thou art,
If, with dry eye, and cold, unloving heart,
Thou tread'st the solemn Pantheon of the Past,
By the great Future's dazzling hope made blind
To all the beauty, power, and truth behind.
Not without reverent awe shouldst thou put by
The cypress branches and the amaranth blooms,
Where, with clasped hands of prayer, upon their tombs
The effigies of old confessors lie,
God's witnesses; the voices of His will,
Heard in the slow march of the centuries still!
Such were the men at whose rebuking frown,
Dark with God's wrath, the tyrant's knee went down;
Such from the terrors of the guilty drew
The vassal's freedom and the poor man's due.
St. Anselm (may he rest forevermore
In Heaven's sw...

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The Rainbow.

The shower is past, and the sky
O'erhead is both mild and serene,
Save where a few drops from on high,
Like gems, twinkle over the green:
And glowing fair, in the black north,
The rainbow o'erarches the cloud;
The sun in his glory comes forth,
And larks sweetly warble aloud.

That dismally grim northern sky
Says God in His vengeance once frowned,
And opened His flood-gates on high,
Till obstinate sinners were drowned:
The lively bright south, and that bow,
Say all this dread vengeance is o'er;
These colours that smilingly glow
Say we shall be deluged no more.

Ever blessed be those innocent days,
Ever sweet their remembrance to me;
When often, in silent amaze,
Enraptured, I'd gaze upon thee!
Whilst arching adown the black sky

Patrick Bronte