What I Live For. A Poem

WHAT I LIVE FOR (Selected) I those who love me, live for Whose hearts are kind and true, For the heaven that smiles above me, And awaits my spirit, too; For the human ties that bind me, For the task by God assigned me, For the bright hopes left behind me, And the good that I can do.

I live to learn their story Who've suffered for my sake, To emulate their glory, And to follow in their wake; Bards, patriots, martyrs, sages, The noble of all ages, Whose deeds crowd history's pages And Time's great volume make.

I live to hold communion With all that is divine, To feel there is a union 'Twixt Nature's heart and mine; To profit by affliction, Reap truths from fields of fiction, Grow wiser from conviction, And fulfil each grand design.

I live to hail that season, By gifted minds foretold, When men shall rule by reason, And not alone by gold; When man to man united, And every wrong thing righted, The whole world shall be lighted As Eden was of old.

I live for those who love me, For those who know me true, For the Heaven that smiles above me. And awaits my spirit, too For the cause that lacks assistance, For the wrong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that I can do. -George Linnaeus Banks, in Dublin University Magazine.

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Improvement Era Vol. XVI APRIL, 1913 No. 6