Poem by Louisa Sarah Bevington

If the World Went Right

Oh! oh! the delight of beholding delight!
The thing that should be if the world went right
Scope for all fitness and merriest might.

And oh, the dolour of looking on pain,
Poor heart that exhausts its life in vain,
Brave powers all bent that your rules restrain

If the world went right t'were a world of bliss:
If everyone dealt with the task that's his,
No wholesomer, sunnier world than this.

Let your bird out of his cage, nor fear;
And if he's a bullfinch, as mine is here,
You'll laugh at his comic, diminutive cheer:

Aye! and what's more, if his food be there,
He'll go back to prison without your care
If you're fair to him then to you he's fair.

Not that he means itit's natural, quite;
All the live things are so sure to go right
If you trust them enough, and enjoy their delight.

Freedom! You'll see what a man can be
When his fellows are happy, as happy as he,
When the whole wide world is at work and free!

When the follies are laid which have led to the strife
And the envy with which the sad earth is rife
Shall yield to the Natural Order of Life!

1. “Egoisme a Deux”
2. Steel or Gold?
3. The Most Beautiful Thing
4. “Merle Wood”
5. Stanza

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