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BALLAD OF THE SUMMER SUN.
It is said that human nature needeth hardship to be strong, That highest growth has come to man in countries white with snow; And they tell of truth and wisdom that to northern folk belong, And claim the brain is feeble where the south winds always blow. They forget to read the story of the ages long ago: The lore that built the pyramids where still the simoom veers, The knowledge framing Tyrian ships, the greater skill that steers, The learning of the Hindu in his volumes never done, All the wisdom of Egyptians and the old Chaldean seers,— Came to man in summer lands beneath a summer sun. It is said that human nature needeth hardship to be strong, That courage bred of meeting cold makes martial bosoms glow; And they point to mighty generals the northern folk among, And call mankind emasculate where southern waters flow. They forget to look at history and see the nations grow! The cohorts of Assyrian kings, the Pharaohs’ charioteers, The march of Alexander, the Persians’ conquering spears, The legions of the Romans, from Ethiop to Hun, The power that mastered all the world and held it years on years,— Came to man in summer lands beneath a summer sun. It is said that human nature needeth hardship to be strong, That only pain and suffering the power to feel bestow; And they show us noble artists made great by loss and wrong, And say the soul is lowered that hath pleasure without woe. They forget the perfect monuments that pleasure’s blessings show; The statue and the temple that no man living nears, Song and verse and music forever in the ears, The glory that remaineth while the sands of time shall run, The beauty of immortal art that never disappears,— Came to man in summer lands beneath a summer sun. The faith of Thor and Odin, the creed of force and fears, Cruel gods that deal in death, the icebound soul reveres, But the Lord of Peace and Blessing was not one! Truth and Power and Beauty—Love that endeth tears— Came to man in summer lands beneath a summer sun.
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