---
title: Improvement Era
description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930.
authors:
  - Selected
collections:
  - periodicals
tags:
  - magazine
  - improvement-era
periodical: Improvement Era
volume: 4
number: 8
published: 1901-06
publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations
publisher_place: Salt Lake City
language: en
type: magazine
reference: 'Selected, "True Nobility: A Poem," *Improvement Era* 4, no. 8 (June 1901): 623.'
source:
  url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0408unse
  transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers.
  identifier: improvementera0408unse
start_page: 623
end_page: 623
rights:
  status: public-domain
  basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1901-06)
  source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0408unse
  publication_year: 1901
  note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1901, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright.
---

# True Nobility: A Poem

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TRUE NOBILITY,


  "What is noble?   'Tis the finer   portion of our mind and heart
  Linked to something still diviner than mere language can impart;
  Ever prompting, ever seeing some improvement yet to plan,
  To uplift our fellow-being, and like man to feel for man.
  What is noble?   That which places truth in its enfranchised will,
  Leaving steps like angel traces that mankind may follow still.
  E'en though scorn's malignant glances prove him poorest of his clan.
  He's the noble who advances freedom and the cause of man."