The work of many of the greatest men, inspired by duty, has been done amidst suffering and trial and difficulty. They have struggled against the tide, and reached the shore exhausted.
quote by Samuel Smiles
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Ashore, ashore with the tide’s flow
Ashore, ashore with the tide’s flow
As in a sack some thing washed in:
And lay amidst the shells
And pebbles of the shore
Amidst the lapping of the waters rude
And the sea-waves’ roar.
Ashore, ashore with the tide’s flow
The sea-waves washed her in
One eye was closed the other open
And on her golden hair
Were drops of red:
Wild lapped the sea-waves and the cloud
Frowned on the sea-shore
Amidst the lapping of the waters rude
And the sea-waves’ roar.
How many winters rude have skimmed
Their frozen fingers on the white breast
Of the pale moon-lit lake a-dreaming sound
How many a Spring of green
Has come and gone:
Since that ashore, ashore with the tide’s flow
The sea-waves washed her in
Her clothes that rich were tattered were
Unseemly with the smoke of cigars
And the drunk smell of alcohol
Her look was wild and sad and raw:
Wild lapped the sea-waves and the cloud
Frowned on the sea-shore
Amidst the lapping of the waters rude
And the sea-waves’ roar.
poem by Emmanuel George Cefai
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.
quote by Helen Keller
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Duty And Work!
Sun rises and sets everyday;
Moon rises and sets everyday;
Plough man ploughs the field;
Poets love to compose poems!
Some love to do duty well;
But many do only for profit.
How duty has to be done?
What do duty, work mean?
Duty is done expecting none;
Work is done expecting some.
Duty and work all have to do;
But duty, works are different!
Duty is life work for everyone;
Work is done to live life here!
poem by Ramesh T A
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Man’s Work
The work of a man is human and the ability
To forsake his concerns outside, to collect love
Of his own being and concentrate on humility.
Brave requests are being made, been accomplished
By those in difficulty.
This difficulty is too much for one of us,
Some of us will resign for the good,
Some of us will reign supreme,
Just let yourself be the next event in the work.
The humans will work their way for the better,
No wrecks are found hopefully.
poem by Naveed Akram
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An Ordinary Rose
I saw a rose, an ordinary rose
It struggled to be seen
In a garden overgrown
With harsh reality. I saw a rose, an ordinary rose
And this rose spoke to me,
Pleading for attention:
Is beauty not a need? I stopped to touch this ordinary rose
And it reached out to me,
Imparting its sweet fragrance
To my senses gratefully. I saw a man, an ordinary man
Who struggled to be seen,
His spirit languished on the streets
In dire neglect and need. I stopped to help this ordinary man
Who struggled to be seen,
And like the rose that bloomed with care
He too reached out to me. Fate placed these roses in our midst
So why should we complain?
Remember who created them
Who witnesses their pain. When next you meet that special rose
That struggles to be seen,
Remember, but for fate alone
That could be you or me.
poem by Devorah Seidenfeld
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Poem To A Dying Man
I see you in the synagogue almost each night now-
I have seen so many in the condition you are in now-
The frailty, the thinness, the cough,
The intense concentration required to do the smallest thing,
The great difficulty in small motion-
Like most of them you are a good man
Worked hard all your life
Raised a family
Knew dislocation and suffering
Struggled for survival
Made a new life after the old world collapsed-
A good man-
I see you now
My heart goes out to you-
It’s the human condition after all
Living and dying-
And who am I to do anything about it?
I exchange a few words with you
To not leave you alone with the night
We go our separate ways -
My heart goes out to you
But what am I to do?
This is the human condition
And will happen in one way or other
To all of us-
I hate it-
I hate to see your suffering
But this is what we are
And I can do nothing about it.
A few words in the night
And then gone.
poem by Shalom Freedman
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A person has three choices in life. You can swim against the tide and get exhausted, or you can tread water and let the tide sweep you away, or you can swim with the tide, and let it take you where it wants you to go.
quote by Andrew Schneider
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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For music
ALONG the shore, along the shore
I see the wavelets meeting:
But thee I see--ah, never more,
For all my wild heart's beating.
The little wavelets come and go,
The tide of life ebbs to and fro,
Advancing and retreating:
But from the shore, the steadfast shore,
The sea is parted never:
And mine I hold thee evermore,
Forever and forever.
Along the shore, along the shore
I hear the waves resounding,
But thou wilt cross them nevermore
For all my wild heart's bounding:
The moon comes out above the tide
And quiets all the billows wide
Her pathway bright surrounding:
Thus on the shore, the dreary shore,
I walk with weak endeavor:
I have thy love's light evermore,
Forever and forever.
poem by Dinah Maria Mulock Craik
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Sonnet – Amidst
Amidst pitch -black darkness, God shows a light;
Amidst a Forest thick, He shows a way;
Amidst black clouds, He brings a moonlit night;
Amidst sorrows, God gives a happy day.
Amidst the desert, Oasis God shows;
Amidst the stormy Sea, He brings calm;
Amidst much strife, He opens newer doors;
Amidst much hopelessness, a helping palm.
Amidst tempest, God shows a bright light-house;
Amidst the glaciers, much sought-after peak;
Amidst our solitude, He gives a spouse;
Amidst the ravines deep, the lost lamb meek.
Amidst the chaos, God ushers new hope,
Amidst the gloom, He gives the church a Pope.
poem by John Celes
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We are being tough in saying it is a duty on the unemployed in future not only to be available for work - and not to shirk work - but also to get the skills for work. That is a new duty we are introducing.
quote by Gordon Brown
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Empty Sea Shells*************9/8/79
i asked the LORD up above
to protect the woman that i love.
but as he would have it be
he took that woman away from me.
he left me feeling empty and shallow
as a sea shell upon a shore.
with the hopes of 'being once more'.
and as the tide came up on the beach.
there my love was within my reach.
the sand pulling out from under me
as i longed to be set free.
i rolled myself upon my back
never giving up hope
never giving up slack.
i finally reached that watery shore
to return to my love forever more.
poem by Louis Rams
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Love and Sacrifice
CAN we not consecrate
To man and God above
This volume of our great
Supernal tide of love?
’Twere wrong its wealth to waste
On merely me and you,
In selfish touch and taste,
As other lovers do.
This love is not as theirs:
It came from the Divine,
Whose glory still it wears,
And print of Whose design.
The world is full of woe,
The time is blurred with dust,
Illusions breed and grow,
And eyes’ and flesh’s lust.
The mighty league with Wrong
And stint the weakling’s bread;
The very lords of song
With Luxury have wed.
Fair Art deserts the mass,
And loiters with the gay;
And only gods of brass
Are popular to-day.
Two souls with love inspired,
Such lightning love as ours,
Could spread, if we desired,
Dismay among such powers:
Could social stables purge
Of filth where festers strife:
Through modern baseness surge
A holier tide of life.
Yea, two so steeped in love
From such a source, could draw
The angels from above
To lead all to their Law.
We have no right to seek
Repose in rosy bower,
When Hunger thins the cheek
Of childhood every hour:
Nor while the tiger, Sin,
’Mid youths and maidens roams,
Should Duty skulk within
These selfish cosy homes.
Our place is in the van
With those crusaders, who
Maintain the rights of man
’Gainst despot and his crew.
If sacrifice may move
Their load of pain from men,
The greatest right of Love
Is to renounce It then.
Ah, Love, the earth is woe’s
And sadly helpers needs:
And, till its burden goes,
Our work is—where it bleeds.
poem by Bernard O'Dowd
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The second trial was a fair trial. I do not call it a second trial. I call it a fair trial, as opposed to the first trial, which was an unfair trial, a Roman holiday.
quote by Sam Sheppard
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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If we must all agree, all work together, we're no better than a machine. If an individual can't work in solidarity with his fellows, it's his duty to work alone. His duty and his right. We have been denying people that right. We've been saying, more and more often, you must work with the others, you must accept the rule of the majority. But any rule is tyranny. The duty of the individual is to accept no rule, to be the initiator of his own acts, to be responsible. Only if he does so will the society live, and change, and adapt, and survive. We are not subjects of a State founded upon law, but members of a society founded upon revolution. Revolution is our obligation: our hope of evolution.
quote by Ursula K. Le Guin
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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True Action!
We are laborer,
Absolutely Pure laborer!
Then why, suffering, complaining,
On own stresses, about unnecessary sweats and toiling!
Work that must be inspired,
Where worker should never come to tire.
No exhaustion but the enjoyment while working,
And true nobler are enthusiastic about goal pursuing!
True Goal is not achieving the goal,
But striving to reach the goal is the real goal.
One should keep the goal to shoot at the highest emplacement,
So that one can enjoy his whole life without getting retirement.
Goal should be so high so that none can reach,
Why should ideal be kept so high so that it can’t be reached?
Striving to reach the highest is the moment where we grow,
Reaching the goal is the end of the goal, hence it will simply blow.
poem by Warner Keisham
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The apprenticeship of difficulty is one which the greatest of men have had to serve.
quote by Samuel Smiles
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Ultima Thule: The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls
The tide rises, the tide falls,
The twilight darkens, the curlew calls;
Along the sea-sands damp and brown
The traveller hastens toward the town,
And the tide rises, the tide falls.
Darkness settles on roofs and walls,
But the sea, the sea in the darkness calls;
The little waves, with their soft, white hands,
Efface the footprints in the sands,
And the tide rises, the tide falls.
The morning breaks; the steeds in their stalls
Stamp and neigh, as the hostler calls;
The day returns, but nevermore
Returns the traveller to the shore,
And the tide rises, the tide falls.
poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
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The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls
The tide rises, the tide falls,
The twilight darkens, the curlew calls;
Along the sea-sands damp and brown
The traveller hastens toward the town,
And the tide rises, the tide falls.
Darkness settles on roofs and walls,
But the sea, the sea in the darkness calls;
The little waves, with their soft, white hands,
Efface the footprints in the sands,
And the tide rises, the tide falls.
The morning breaks; the steeds in their stalls
Stamp and neigh, as the hostler calls;
The day returns, but nevermore
Returns the traveller to the shore,
And the tide rises, the tide falls.
poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Tide Rises, the Tide Falls, The
The tide rises, the tide falls,
The twilight darkens, the curlew calls;
Along the sea-sands damp and brown
The traveler hastens toward the town,
And the tide rises, the tide falls.
Darkness settles on roofs and walls,
But the sea, the sea in darkness calls;
The little waves, with their soft, white hands
Efface the footprints in the sands,
And the tide rises, the tide falls.
The morning breaks; the steeds in their stalls
Stamp and neigh, as the hostler calls;
The day returns, but nevermore
Returns the traveler to the shore.
And the tide rises, the tide falls.
poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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