George Linnaeus Banks

George Linnaeus Banks Poems

George Linnaeus Banks Biography

George Linnaeus Banks (March 2, 1821 – May 3, 1881), husband of author Isabella Banks, was a British journalist, editor, poet, playwright, amateur actor, orator, and Methodist. George was born in Birmingham, the son of a seedsman familiar with the plant nomenclature of Linnaeus. After a brief experience in a variety of trades, in his late teens George Banks became a contributor to various newspapers, and subsequently a playwright, being the author of plays, burlesques and lyrics. Between 1848 and 1864 he edited in succession a variety of newspapers, including the Birmingham Mercury and the Daily Express of Dublin. George Banks' plays included 'The Slave King', written for the black actor Ira Aldridge, and 'The Swiss Father'; his popular songs included 'The Minstrel King', 'Warwickshire Will', and 'Dandy Jim of Caroline' based on a negro melody; and his poetry included 'Daisies in the Grass' (1865). Some of his more popular lines were frequently used by platform and pulpit orators, notably his lyrical 'What I Live For': "I live for those who love me, for those who know me true; for the heaven that smiles above me and awaits my spirit too. For the cause that lacks assistance, for the wrong that needs resistance, for the future in the distance, and the good that I can do." which has now been adopted by the Zeta Pi Omega sorority of IIT as their creed. George Banks died of cancer and pneumonia in Dalston, Hackney, close to London, and is buried nearby at Abney Park Cemetery, Stoke Newington with his wife - the author Isabella Banks.)

The Best Poem Of George Linnaeus Banks

What I Live For

I live for those who love me,
Whose hearts are kind and true,
For heaven that smiles above me,
And waits my spirit, too;
For all the ties that bind me,
For all the tasks assigned me.
And bright hopes left behind me,
And good that I can do.

I live to learn their story
Who've suffered for my sake,
To emulate their glory,
And follow in their wake;
Bards, patriots, martyrs, sages,
The noble of all ages,
Whose deeds crown history's pages,
And Time's great volume make.

I live to hold communion
With all that is divine,
To feel there is a union
'Twixt Nature's heart and mine;
To profit by affliction,
Reap truths from fields of fiction,
And, wiser from conviction,
Fulfil each grand design.

I live to hail that season,
By gifted minds foretold,
When men shall rule by reason,
And not alone by gold;
When man to man united,
And every wrong thing righted,
The whole world shall be lighted
As Eden was of old.

I live for those who love me,
Whose hearts are kind and true,
For heaven that smiles above me,
And waits my spirit too;
For the cause that lacks assistance,
For the wrong that needs resistance,
For the future in the distance,
And the good that I can do.

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