Better Things

When we were in college, Justin introduced me to George MacDonald. George MacDonald was a Scottish author and Christian minister in the late 1800's - early 1900's. He seems to be best known for his books, Phantasties, The Princess and the Goblin, and At the Back of the North Wind although he wrote much, much more. In fact, Justin and I love his works so much that we've slowly collected his writings and have a shelf of lovely hard-covered books numbering probably at least 20.

Sometime around college when I first learned about George MacDonald, I must have went in search of his writing on the internet. In that search, I came across his poems. Better Things is one of his poems and I've yet to see it in any of the books we own and I'm not even sure it's in any sort of collection. However, it's always stuck with me. I had the foresight to print it off when I found it way back when and it's stayed in my college binders ever since. So now I'm putting it on here. This blog is a far better place to store a poem and besides that, I can now share it with all of you.

Better Things

Better to smell a violet,
Than sip the careless wine;
Better to list one music tone,
Than watch the jewels' shine.

Better to have the love of one,
Than smiles like the morning dew;
Better to have a living seed,
Than flowers of every hue.

Better to feel a love within,
Than be lovely to the sight;
Better a homely tenderness,
Than beauty's wild delight.

Better to love than be beloved.
Though lonely all the day;
Better the fountain in the heart,
Than the fountain by the way.

Better a feeble love to God,
Than for woman's love to pine;
Better to have the making God
Than the woman made divine.

Better be fed by mother's hand,
Than eat alone at will;
Better to trust in God,
Than say: My goods my storehouse fill.

Better to be a little wise
Than learned overmuch;
Better than high are lowly thoughts,
For truthful thoughts are such.

Better than thrill a listening crowd,
Sit at a wise man's feet;
But better teach a child, than toil
To make thyself complete.

Better to walk the realm unseen,
Than watch the hour's event;
Better the smile of God alway,
Than the voice of men's consent.

Better to have a quiet grief
Than a tumultuous joy;
Better than manhood, age's face,
If the heart be of a boy.

Better the tanks of one dear heart,
Than a nation's voice of praise;
Better the twilight ere the dawn,
Than yesterday's mid-blaze.

Better a death when work is done,
Than earth's most favoured birth;
Better a child in God's great house,
Than the king of all the earth.

-George MacDonald