Page 5 Transcribed:
Judge Not!
Judge not: the workings of his brain
and his heart thou canst not see;
what looks to thy dim eyes a stain,
in God’s pure light may only be
a scar brought from some well won field
where thou wouldest only faint and yield.
The look, the air, that frets thy sight
may be a token that below
the soul has closed in deadly fight
with some infernal, fiery Joe;
whose glance would scorch thy smiling grace,
and east thee, shuddering, on thy face.
The fall thou darest to despise,
maybe the angels slackened hand
has suffered it, Heat Ice (??) may rise
and take a firmer, surer stand;
or trusting less to earthly things
may henceforth learn to use his wings.
and judge none lost; but wait and see
with hopeful pity, not disdain;
the depth of the abyss may be
the measure of the height of pain
and love and glory, that may raise
the soul to God in after days.
A.A. Procter,
September 18th 1900
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what a good poem!! I have often said that what we see as flaws and stains are wounds and scars left from possibly noble battles... battles that perhaps we would not have even survived!! I love in the first stanza- "what looks to thy dim eyes a stain, in God’s pure light may only be a scar brought from some well won field where thou wouldest only faint and yield". Makes me feel conviction as I know I can be quite judgemental sometimes.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I won't provide to much literary critique of the poem itself... I'll leave that up to you. What I will do is look for clues about the diary and the writer of the diary-
This poem was hard to find anything about and all initial googling proved fruitless. I tried different combinations though and eventually found an excerpt from this poem at THIS WEBSITE which appeared to be an archive of an old Christian devotional. Though it was only an excerpt it told me the full name of the poet A.A. Procter was Adelaide Anne Procter, who I then looked up on wikipedia HERE. If you like the poem (as I do) then I suggest reading the wikipedia because the brief write up about the poet make the poem very interesting.
I have a feeling that the writer that this diary belongs to was either a Christian or has very strong religious roots and is well versed in religion. I also believe going by the inclusions of quotes so far that the writer reads a lot of books that were quite progressive and hipster for their time. A free thinker perhaps which is rare for a century ago, esspecially if the writer is female.
Perhaps "Has suffered it, that he may rise and take a firmer surer stand"
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