Abou Ben Adhem by James Henry 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 of all 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 cheerly still; and said, "I pray thee, then,
Write me as one that 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 blest,
And lo! Ben Adhem's name led all the rest.
Biography

Leigh Hunt, in full James Henry Leigh Hunt, (born October 19, 1784, Southgate, Middlesex,
England—died August 28, 1859, Putney, London), English essayist, critic, journalist, and poet,
who was an editor of influential journals in an age when the periodical was at the height of its
power

Died: August 28, 1859, Putney

Born: October 19, 1784, Southgate
Periodical: The Examiner
Works written:  Hero and Lean, Abou Ben Adhem

 Amyntas, A Tale of the Woods (1820), a translation of Tasso's Aminta

 Flora Domestica, Or, The Portable Flower-garden: with Directions for the Treatment
of Plants in Pots and Illustrations From the Works of the Poets. London: Taylor and
Hessey. 1823., with Elizabeth Kent, published anonymously[17]
 The Seer, or Common-Places refreshed (2 pts., 1840–1841)
 three of the Canterbury Tales in The Poems of Geoffrey Chaucer modernized (1841)
 Stories from the Italian Poets (1846)
 compilations such as One Hundred Romances of Real Life (1843)
 selections from Beaumont and Fletcher (1855)
 with S Adams Lee, The Book of the Sonnet (Boston, 1867).