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Requirement

By John Greenleaf Whittier

Topics: classic

We live by Faith; but Faith is not the slave     Of text and legend. Reason's voice and God's,     Nature's and Duty's, never are at odds.     What asks our Father of His children, save     Justice and mercy and humility,     A reasonable service of good deeds,     Pure living, tenderness to human needs,     Reverence and trust, and prayer for light to see     The Master's footprints in our daily ways?     No knotted scourge nor sacrificial knife,     But the calm beauty of an ordered life     Whose very breathing is unworded praise!     A life that stands as all true lives have stood,     Firm-rooted in the faith that God is Good

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"We live by Faith; but Faith is not the slave..."

Exploring the themes of classic, John Greenleaf Whittier delivers a powerful performance in "Requirement"... ### Why We Love This Line At Linespedia, we believe that poetry is the ultimate sanctuary for the soul...

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Author:John Greenleaf Whittier

"We live by Faith; but Faith is not the slave..." by John Greenleaf Whittier

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"The Text is taken from Percy's Reliques (1765), vol. i. p. 71, 'given from two MS. copies, transmitted from Scotland.' Herd had a very similar bal"

John Greenleaf Whittier

About John Greenleaf Whittier

John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–1892) was an American Quaker poet and abolitionist whose poems—including "Snow-Bound" and "Barbara Frietchie"—celebrate New England life and moral courage. He was one of the Fireside Poets and a leading voice against slavery.

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"Gallery of sacred pictures manifold,     A minster..."

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