When I waken in the morn
I'm sad, I must confess,
To think that ere I can go out
I must get up and dress.
1953
_Deuteronomy xxii, 4._--"Thou shalt not see thy brother's ox or ass fall
down by the way, and hide thyself from them; thou shalt surely help him
lift them up again."
Mr. George Herbert, the poet, when walking to Salisbury, saw a poor
man, with a poorer horse, fallen under his load. Mr. Herbert perceiving
this, put off his canonical coat, and helped the poor man to unload, and
after to load his horse. The poor man blessed him for it, and he blessed
the poor man, and gave him money to refresh both himself and his horse;
and told him, "If he loved himself, he should be merciful to his beast."
At his coming to his musical friends at Salisbury, they began to wonder
that Mr. George Herbert, who used to be so clean, came in such a
condition; but he told them the occasion; and when one of the company
told him, "he had disparaged himself by so dirty an employment," his
answer was, "That the thought of what he had done would prove music to
him at midnight; and the omission of it would have upbraided and made
discord in his conscience, whensoever he should pass by the place."
1954
I wrote down my troubles every day;
And after a few short years,
When I turned to the heart-aches passed away,
I read them with smiles,--not tears.
1955
To tell our troubles, is often the way to lighten them.
1956