My favourite poem

It is something to have wept as we have wept,
And something to have done as we have done;
It is something to have watched when all have slept,
And seen the stars which never see the sun.

It is something to have smelt the mystic rose,
Although it break and leave the thorny rods;
It is something to have hungered once as those,
Must hunger who have ate the bread of gods;

To have known the things that from the weak are furled,
The fearful ancient passions, strange and high;
It is something to be wiser than the world,
And something to be older than the sky.

Lo, and blessed are our ears for they have heard,
Yea, and blessed are our eyes for they have seen:
Let the thunder break on human, beast and bird,
And lightning. It is something to have been.

G. K. Chesterton