Thursday 8 October 2015

INFLUENCE

A pebble dropped into a pool
disturbs the water in a circle
widening without definite boundary.

Motion displaces air, 

nor can we assign any limit 
to the extent of such displacement.

Earth revolving within space 
carries along with itself 
its own vast atmosphere.
 

And more or less like each of these, 
personal influence is certain
and is incalculable; 
is a mighty engine inseparable from 
a proportionate burden 
of responsibility. 

None are too great, none too small, 
for this burden. 

St. Paul laid himself out, 
moulded himself, 
spent himself 
to bear it worthily; 
as his own words attest.


"Though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more. And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law; to them that are without law, as without law (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ), that I might gain them that are without law. To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some."
(CGR and DCB)

If I call this a poem of mine - it's a plagiarism: see here!   It is a poem?  Was it before I started?  Does it give a hint of what a modern Christina Rossetti would have been like?

1 comment:

I'm glad to hear how this strikes you!