What I Live For

George Linnæus Banks (1821–1881)

I LIVE for those who love me,

Whose hearts are kind and true,

For heaven that smiles above me,

And waits my spirit, too;

For all the ties that bind me,

For all the tasks assigned me,

And bright hopes left behind me,

And good that I can do.

I live to learn their story

Who’ve suffered for my sake,

To emulate their glory,

And follow in their wake;

Bards, patriots, martyrs, sages,

The noble of all ages,

Whose deeds crown 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,

Reap truths from fields of fiction,

And, wiser from conviction,

Fulfil each grand design.

I live to hail that season,

By gifted minds foretold,

When men shall rule 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,

Whose hearts are kind and true,

For heaven that smiles above me,

And waits my spirit too;

For the cause that lacks assistance,

For the wrong that needs resistance,

For the future in the distance,

And the good that I can do.