Читать книгу Prison Poetry - Hiram Peck McKnight - Страница 4

Table of Contents

True models of poetic art.

Should please the ear and touch the heart:

Stamp on the plastic mind of youth

Due reverence for Eternal Truth.

Paint field and flower in nature's hues,

Give to the world the heart's best news,

Or, lightly tripping o'er the page,

Rejuvenate the blood of age.

The sacred Muse should ne'er descend.

Vice to guild, nor wound a friend.

Heaven gave no man poetic art,

Save to improve the human heart.

You may not find, in coming page,

The ripened wisdom of the age:

Yet you will find, untrained by art, The deathless music of the heart: And truth shall caress each flaming line. Inspired by The Tuneful Nine; No fear of man nor greed of praise Shall make or mar our tuneful lays; We simply voice the ripest thought Of prisoned souls with meaning fraught. Yours it is to praise or blame My effort to deserve a name!