Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Spain, Portugal, Belgium, and Holland: Vols. XIV–XV. 1876–79. | | | | Belgium: Antwerp | | Antwerp Cathedral | | Henry Alford (1810–1871) |
| | | BE it not mine in these high aisles to tread | |
| Lightly, with scornful or with pitying gaze, | |
| Viewing these worshippers, who on the days | |
| When English fanes are silent as the dead, | |
| Throng kneeling, where yon feeble candles shed | 5 |
| Their flickering light: far rather would I raise | |
| My hands in prayer with them, or join in praise, | |
| Or sit beneath their shrines in humble dread. | |
| Because our being’s end is furthered best | |
| Not by the pride of reason, most unjust | 10 |
| When it condemneth,—but by self-distrust, | |
| By mildness, and submission, and arrest | |
| Of sudden judgment: thus we learn to feel | |
| That all are one, and have one wound to heal. | | | | |
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