Strong meat of simple truth

My dad served as a high counselor and as a bishop, so he gave a lot of talks when I was growing up, and I guess I heard some of them repeated a few times.  These are two poems that he used often enough for me to remember them and associate them with my father.  The first, by Emerson, is not the entire poem, which is long, but parts that I remember him quoting.  The second is, It Couldn't Be Done, by Edgar Guest. Enjoy--


If thou canst bear 
Strong meat of simple truth 
If thou durst my words compare 
With what thou thinkest in my soul’s free youth, 
Then take this fact unto thy soul,----- 
God dwells in thee
.  . . . 
Clouded and shrouded there doth sit
The Infinite
Embosomed in a man;
And thou art stranger to thy guest 
. . .
Soul of thy soul.
Be great as doth beseem
The ambassador who bears
The royal presence where he goes.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

It Couldn't Be Done by Edgar Guest

It Couldn’t Be Done

Edgar Guest

Somebody said that it couldn’t be done,

But, he with a chuckle replied

That "maybe it couldn’t," but he would be one

Who wouldn’t say so till he’d tried.

So he buckled right in with the trace of a grin

On his face. If he worried he hid it.

He started to sing as he tackled the thing

That couldn’t be done, and he did it.

Somebody scoffed: "Oh, you’ll never do that;

At least no one has done it";

But he took off his coat and he took off his hat,

And the first thing we knew he’d begun it.

With a lift of his chin and a bit of a grin,

Without any doubting or quiddit,

He started to sing as he tackled the thing

That couldn’t be done, and he did it.

There are thousands to tell you it cannot be done,

There are thousands to prophesy failure;

There are thousands to point out to you one by one,

The dangers that wait to assail you.

But just buckle it in with a bit of a grin,

Just take off your coat and go to it;

Just start to sing as you tackle the thing

That "couldn’t be done," and you’ll do it.