Abou Ben Adhem

by James Leigh Hunt

Abou Ben Adhem (may his tribe increase!)
Awoke one night from a deep dream of peace,
And saw, within the moonlight in his room,
Making it rich, and like a lily in bloom,
An Angel writing in a book of gold:
Exceeding peace had made Ben Adhem bold,
And to the Presence in the room he said,
“What writest thou?” The Vision raised its head,
And with a look made all of sweet accord
Answered, “The names of those who love the Lord.”
“And is mine one?” said Abou. “Nay, not so,”
Replied the Angel. Abou spoke more low,
But cheerily still; and said, “I pray thee, then,
Write me as one who loves his fellow men.”

The Angel wrote, and vanished. The next night
It came again with a great wakening light,
And showed the names whom love of God had blessed,
And, lo! Ben Adhem’s name led all the rest!
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I memorized this in fifth grade, and it's one of the few memorizations that stuck with me all of these years. Ask me sometime and you can have a free performance... I guess if the favorite old book Fahrenheit 451? was fact instead of fiction, 'Abou' would be my reason d'etre.
Trivia: This poem once got the young Isaac Asimov into trouble in school.
When asked why Ben Adhem’s name led all the rest, he waved his hand wildly and answered, “Alphabetical order!” ... a spirited but unappreciated stand against the belabouring of the obvious.