Generous Youth Poem by Martin Farquhar Tupper

Unworldly child of feeling,
With kindled eye and kindly heart
Incautiously revealing
How loving and how true thou art,--
Alas! for men will use thee,
And even while they use contemn,
And in their turn refuse thee
The help that thou hast yielded them.

Yet holy angels love thee,
And yearningly they shield from harm,
As glorious guards above thee,
A spirit found so fresh and warm;
And God Himself doth bless thee,
And all the souls made perfect now
In sympathy caress thee,
Kissing thine illumined brow!

Still, while I praise thy beauty
Thy characters of lovely light,
In friendship's tender duty
I counsel thee, dear youth, aright:
Remember one true sentence--
That 'pearls should not be cast to swine,'--
And never shall repentance
Becloud one generous act of thine.