What I Live For

Here is a poem that has been a favourite of mine since childhood. I hope you like it.

Lionel

What I Live For


I live for those who love me,
Whose hearts are kind and true,
For the heaven that smiles above me,
And awaits my coming too,
For all human ties that bind me,
For the task by God assigned me,
For the bright hopes yet to find me,
And the good that I can do.

I live to learn their story,
Who suffered for my sake,
To emulate their glory,
And follow in their wake.
Bards, patriots, martyrs, sages,
The heroics of all ages,
Whose deeds crowd history’s pages,
And time’s great volume make.

I live to hold communion,
With all that is divine,
To feel there is a union,
Twixt nature’s heart and mine.
To profit by affliction,
Sow truths from fields of fiction,
Grow wiser by conviction,
And fulfil God’s grand design.

I live to hail that season,
By prophet bards foretold,
When man shall live by reason,
And not alone by gold,
When man to man united,
And every wrong thing righted,
The whole world shall be lighted,
As Eden was of old.

I live for those who love me,
For those who know me true true,
For the heaven that smiles above me,
And awaits my spirit too.
For the cause that lacks assistance,
For the wrong that lacks resistance
For the future in the distance,
And the good that I can do

George Linnaeus Banks