Ode To Duty

<SPAN name="startofbook"></SPAN> <h2> <SPAN name="section14" id="section14"></SPAN>Ode to Duty </h2> <br/> Stern Daughter of the Voice of God!<br/> O Duty! if that name thou love<br/> Who art a light to guide, a rod<br/> To check the erring, and reprove;<br/> Thou, who art victory and law <br/> When empty terrors overawe;<br/> From vain temptations dost set free;<br/> And calm'st the weary strife of frail humanity! <br/><br/> There are who ask not if thine eye<br/> Be on them; who, in love and truth, <br/> Where no misgiving is, rely<br/> Upon the genial sense of youth: <br/> Glad Hearts! without reproach or blot;<br/> Who do thy work, and know it not:<br/> Oh, if through confidence misplaced <br/> They fail, thy saving arms, dread Power! around them cast. <br/><br/> Serene will be our days and bright,<br/> And happy will our nature be,<br/> When love is an unerring light,<br/> And joy its own security. <br/> And they a blissful course may hold<br/> Even now, who, not unwisely bold, <br/> Live in the spirit of this creed;<br/> Yet seek thy firm support, according to their need.<br/><br/> I, loving freedom, and untried;<br/> No sport of every random gust,<br/> Yet being to myself a guide,<br/> Too blindly have reposed my trust:<br/> And oft, when in my heart was heard<br/> Thy timely mandate, I deferred <br/> The task, in smoother walks to stray; <br/> But thee I now would serve more strictly, if I may.<br/><br/> Through no disturbance of my soul,<br/> Or strong compunction in me wrought,<br/> I supplicate for thy control; <br/> But in the quietness of thought:<br/> Me this unchartered freedom tires; <br/> I feel the weight of chance-desires:<br/> My hopes no more must change their name,<br/> I long for a repose that ever is the same. <br/> <br/> Stern Lawgiver! yet thou dost wear<br/> The Godhead's most benignant grace;<br/> Nor know we any thing so fair<br/> As is the smile upon thy face: <br/> Flowers laugh before thee on their beds <br/> And fragrance in thy footing treads; <br/> Thou dost preserve the stars from wrong;<br/> And the most ancient heavens, through Thee, are fresh and strong.<br/><br/> To humbler functions, awful Power!<br/> I call thee: I myself commend <br/> Unto thy guidance from this hour;<br/> Oh, let my weakness have an end!<br/> Give unto me, made lowly wise,<br/> The spirit of self-sacrifice;<br/> The confidence of reason give; <br/> And in the light of truth thy Bondman let me live! <br/> <br/> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />