Honest Now

HONEST NOW
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Brother, with a mind to grumble
At the place you occupy
Don’t you think it is your level,
Though it isn’t very high?
Don’t you think, if you were worthy,
You’d get farther up, somehow-
That the fault is in your idols?
Honest, now

You are railing at misfortune-
Say you haven’t had a show-
When perhaps you’ve been neglectful;
Let your chances come and go,
And you long for some promotion
That will better things allow-
Do you think that you have earned it? ,
Honest, now

You have been a “gay deceiver”
Mingling in the giddy whirl,
Now, you seek a life companion
In some mother’s spotless girl
With the fair, sweet seal of virtue
Written on her snowy brow —
Do you think that you deserve it?
Honest, now

You have reveled, unrepentant,
In the sodden sins of earth,
Put aside your soul’s improvement
For the sake of senseless mirtli,
Yet you think to enter heaven
Where the white robed angels bow-
Do you think you’d feel at home there?
Honest, now
-Mortimer Crane Brown