|
Classic and Contemporary Poetry
WATCH YOURSELF GO BY, by STRICKLAND GILLILAN Poet's Biography First Line: Just stand aside and watch yourself go by Last Line: Have stood aside and watched yourself go by. Variant Title(s): A Cure For Fault-finding Subject(s): Courage; Valor; Bravery | |||
JUST STAND ASIDE and watch yourself go by; Think of yourself as "he" instead of "I." Note, closely as in other men you note, The bag-kneed trousers and the seedy coat. Pick flaws; find fault; forget the man is you, And strive to make your estimate ring true. Confront yourself and look you in the eye -- Just stand aside and watch yourself go by. Interpret all your motives just as though You looked on one whose aims you did not know. Let undisguised contempt surge through you when You see you shirk, O commonest of men! Despise your cowardice; condemn whate'er You note of falseness in you anywhere. Defend not one defect that shames your eye -- Just stand aside and watch yourself go by. And then, with eyes unveiled to what you loathe, To sins that with sweet charity you'd clothe, Back to your self-walled tenement you'll go With tolerance for all who dwell below. The faults of others then will dwarf and shrink, Love's chain grow stronger by one mighty link, When you, with "he" as substitute for "I," Have stood aside and watched yourself go by. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...UNLESS IT WAS COURAGE by MARVIN BELL THE QUALITY OF COURAGE by STEPHEN VINCENT BENET ON THE OREGON COAST; FOR WILLIAM STAFFORD by ROBERT BLY WORDS WITH WALLACE STEVENS by ROBERT BLY BUFFALO CLOUDS OVER THE MAESTRO HOON by NORMAN DUBIE A SONG OF COURAGE by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON THE AUDACIOUS by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON OH, THE WATER by DORIANNE LAUX NEED OF LOVING by STRICKLAND GILLILAN |
|