I STILL can suffer pain; I strive and hope in vain; My wounds may not all heal, Nor time their depth reveal. So dreamed I, of a summer day, As in the oak's cool shade I lay, And thought that shining, lightsome river Went rippling, rippling on forever: - That I should bend with pain, Should sing and love in vain; That I should fret and pine, And hopeless thought define. I want a true and simple heart, That asks no pleasure in a part, But seeks the whole; and finds the soul, A heart at rest, in sure control. I shall accept all I may have, Or fine or foul, or rich or brave; Accept that measure in life's cup, And touch the rim and raise it up. Some drop of Time's strange glass it holds, So much endurance it enfolds; Or base and small, or broadly meant, I cannot spill God's element. Dion or C…sar drained no more, Not Solon, nor a Plato's lore; So much had they the power to do, So much hadst thou, and equals too. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A COWBOY ALONE WITH HIS CONSCIENCE by JAMES BARTON ADAMS OUT OF THE SHADOW by MARGARET FAIRLESS BARBER THE POOR MAN'S PIG by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN HAYMAKERS' SONG, FR. KING RENE'S HONEYMOON by GORDON BOTTOMLEY ROGER'S SONG, FR. MIDSUMMER EVE by GORDON BOTTOMLEY LOVE IS A STAR by WILLIAM STANLEY BRAITHWAITE THE LAMENT OF SIGISMUNDO IN LA VIDA ES SUENO by PEDRO CALDERON DE LA BARCA |