To blaze his own brave trail
Along the beaten track,

Make of the old a newer way

Of stouter clay,

For others at his back.

He is the pioneer who climbs,
Who dares to climb,

His own high heart,
Although he fall
A thousand times;
Who dares to crawl

On bloody hands and knees
Along its stony ecstasies

Up to the utmost snows;
Nor knows

He stands on these .

Or knowing, does not care,

Save to climb on from there!

Who is the pioneer?

He is the follower here,
Dogged and undeterred,

Perhaps the last

Of all who passed.

He passes too,
The heavy bird,

Limping along . . .

Ah but his song,

His song!

DO YOU FEAR THE WIND?

BY HAMLIN GARLAND

Do you fear the force of the wind,
The slash of the rain?

Go face them and fight them,

Be savage again.

Go hungry and cold like the wolf,

Go wade like the crane:

The palms of your hands will thicken,

The skin of your cheek will tan,

You'll grow ragged and weary and swarthy,

But you'll walk like a man!

From THE POEM OF JOYS

BY WALT WHITMAN

O joy of suffering!

To struggle against great odds! to meet enemies undaunted!

To be entirely alone with them! to find how much one can stand!

To look strife, torture, prison, popular odium, death, face to face!

To mount the scaffold! to advance to the muzzles of guns with perfect nonchalance!

To be indeed a God!

GRIEF

BY ANGELA MORGAN

Upon this trouble shall I whet my life

As 'twere a dulling knife;

Bade I my friend be brave?

I shall still braver be.

No man shall say of me,

"Others he saved, himself he cannot save." But, swift and fair

As the primeval Word that smote the night-
"Let there be light!"

Courage shall leap from me, a gallant sword
To rout the enemy and all his horde,
Cleaving a kingly pathway through despair.

PRAYER

(From The Image in the Sand; Arranged by permission of the author.)

BY E. F. BENSON

The dawn of the everlasting day

And of the full knowledge of the One Spirit
Which moves the world.

Infinite Lord of life,

Shine on me;

Make me to know that there is but one all-encompassing

power,

That.everything that might seem to me an exception, an evil,

Is but the effect of my own blindness.

Pour, then, thy light upon my eyes;

Remove the shadows from me and the doubtings.
Let thy cloud of witnesses be close about me,
And, though not visible, make it known to me
That they watch,

That they wait,

That my soul, too, even now is one of them,—

Is as close to them

As is my body to those who live with me on this earth.

Fill me with the knowledge of their presence,

Of their nearness to me

And of their dearness.

And even as I fill my whole being

With the air I breathe,

Let this knowledge of my communion with them.

Flood and overflow my soul.

From APPARENT FAILURE

BY ROBERT BROWNING

My own hope is, a sun will pierce
The thickest cloud earth ever stretched;
That, after Last, returns the First,
Though a wide compass round be fetched;
That what began best, can't end worst,
Nor what God blessed once, prove accurst.

PRAYER 1

BY LOUIS UNTERMEYER

God, though this life is but a wraith,
Although we know not what we use,
Although we grope with little faith,
Give me the heart to fight-and lose.

Ever insurgent let me be,

Make me more daring than devout; From sleek contentment keep me free, And fill me with a buoyant doubt.

Open my eyes to visions girt

With beauty, and with wonder litBut let me always see the dirt,

And all that spawn and die in it.

1 From "Challenge" by Louis Untermeyer, by permission of Harcourt, Brace and Company, Inc., holders of the copyright.