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aspirations.
Thought, feeling, time, on idols vain, I've lavish'd all too long:
Henceforth to holier purposes I pledge myself, my song!
Henceforth to holier purposes I pledge myself, my song!
Oh! still within the inner veil, upon the spirit's shrine,
Still unprofaned by evil, burns the one pure spark divine
Which God has kindled in us all, and be it mine to tend
Henceforth with vestal thought and care, the light that lamp may lead.
Still unprofaned by evil, burns the one pure spark divine
Which God has kindled in us all, and be it mine to tend
Henceforth with vestal thought and care, the light that lamp may lead.
I shut mine eyes in grief and shame upon the dreary past,
My heart, my soul pour'd recklessly on dreams that could not last.
My bark has drifted down the stream at will of wind
An idle, light, and fragile thing, that few had cared to save.
My heart, my soul pour'd recklessly on dreams that could not last.
My bark has drifted down the stream at will of wind
An idle, light, and fragile thing, that few had cared to save.
Henceforth the tiller Truth shall hold, and steer as Conscience tells
And I will brave the storms of Fate, tho' wild the ocean swells.
And I will brave the storms of Fate, tho' wild the ocean swells.
