Classic Poem

There are many things I love, my friends, and many things I hate;
There are things I simply reverence, things I abominate!
And I'd like to tell them all to you, outspoken, frank, and fair;
But 'twould take more time and patience than we've either got to spare.

So we'll drop externals totally, for Nature drew the plan;
We can't change it one iota, nor no other power can!
She placed thorns among the roses, gave the peach its bloom and fuzz,
Some of us made straight, some crooked: " Handsome is that handsome does. "

There are faces that are beautiful — as fair as angels' wings!
There are faces so repulsive that their flaws a shudder brings!
But the loveliest face you ever saw may veil a leper's taint,
And the face that's most repellent may disguise a very saint!

'Tis in deed and motive we must look for all our loves and loathes,
For appearances of good and ill are masquerading clothes!
There's no man or woman either that forever can deceive;
There's a warp or woof that's rotten in each fabric that they weave!

So to come right down to business, all I love and all I hate
Just two words describe completely — just two words most fully state!
They are easy words to think of, they are hard words to forget:
They hold all the good and evil that the world's discovered yet!

I love gentlemen in thought and act who to themselves are true!
I love women who are faithful, whose devotion's ever new!
I love people whose ambition is the wreath of verity —
These I love, and these I find in this one word: Sincerity!

I hate meanness, hate deception, and I hate a pander — cur!
I hate arrogance and treachery, I hate a slanderer!
Hate a liar, hate the " codfish " in our aristocracy! —
These I hate, and these I find in this one word: Hypocrisy!

You will pardon me these platitudes — I wasn't " called " to preach,
And I'm struggling for a higher plane than I fear I'll ever reach;
But I'd be very happy if, in spite of frowning fate,
I could make some people love and hate the things I love and hate!