Living
What Is Good
From The Home Book of Verse, ed. Burton Egbert Stevenson (1912)
Living
"What is the real good?"
I asked in musing mood.
Order, said the law court;
Knowledge, said the school;
Truth, said the wise man;
Pleasure, said the fool;
Love, said the maiden;
Beauty, said the page;
Freedom, said the dreamer;
Home, said the sage;
Fame, said the soldier;
Equity, the seer;--
Spake my heart full sadly,
"The answer is not here."
Then within my bosom
Softly this I heard:
"Each heart holds the secret;
Kindness is the word."
Cite this poem
MLA
O'Reilly, John Boyle. “What Is Good.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/oreilly_jb/16/.
Chicago
O'Reilly, John Boyle. “What Is Good.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/oreilly_jb/16/.
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