Up, Up, and Be Stirring

Up, Up, and Be Stirring

Up, up, and be stirring! there's much to be done;
There's a fight to be fought, there's a field to be won.
'TIs a field that is guiltless of tears or of blood,
That is fruitful of blessings, and potent for good.

So, up and be stirring!

Up, up, and be stirring!

The field it lies fallow; come put in the seeds,
And watch them, and tend them, and pluck up the weeds;
Then, trusting to Heaven for the sunshine and rain,
Your love and your labor shall not be in vain.

So, up and be stirring!

Up, up, and be stirring!

The mind is a fallow for good or for ill,
And may turn to a desert or garden at will;
It is choked with the tares and the weeds that it grows,
Or it brightens with verdnre, and blooms like the rose.

So, up and be stirring!

Up, up, and be stirring!

Then educate! educate! now is the hour;
Just now is the seed-time of glory and power.
Oh! stay not—delay not—spread knowledge and light,
And with these teach the wisdom to use them aright.

So, up and be stirring!

Up, up, and be stirring!

Away with divisions! like brothers combine,
In a labor so noble, a work so divine;
Give new life to the heart, with new light to the mind,
Of the morally dead and then mentally blind.

So, up and be stirring!

Up, up, and be stirring!

Reclaiming, reforming, are all very well;
But the less they are needed the better 't will tell.
'Tis right we should medicine the ills we endure,
But prevention, prevention, is better than cure!

So, up and be stirring!

Up, up, and be stirring!

Unattributed

1:48, p. 1

6.16.1860