SONG OF THE HUMAN SPIRIT
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ow beautiful is the human spiritIn its vase of clay!It takes no thought of the chary doleOf the light of day.It labors and loves, as it were a soulWhom the gods repayWith length of life, and a golden goalAt the end of the way. There are souls I know who arch a dome,And tunnel a hill.They chisel in marble and fashion in chrome,And measure the sky.They find the good and destroy the ill,And they bend and plyThe laws of nature out of a willWhile the fates deny. I wonder and worship the human spiritWhen I beholdNumbers and symbols, and how they reachThrough steel and gold;A harp, a battle-ship, thought and speech,And an hour foretold.It ponders its nature to turn and teach,And itself to mould. The human spirit is God, no doubt,Is flesh made the word:Jesus, Beethoven and Raphael,And the souls who heardBeyond the rim of the world the swellOf an ocean stirredBy a Power on the waters inscrutable.There are souls who girdTheir loins in faith that the world is well,In a faith unblurred.How beautiful is the human spirit--The flesh made the word!
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