AUTHOR OF "RAMONA," "A CENTURY OF DISHONOR," "VERSES," "SONNETS AND
LYRICS," "GLIMPSES OF THREE COASTS," "BITS OF TRAVEL," "BITS OF TRAVEL
AT HOME," "ZEPH," "MERCY PHILBRICK'S CHOICE," "BETWEEN WHILES," "BITS OF
TALK ABOUT HOME MATTERS," "BITS OF TALK FOR YOUNG FOLKS," "NELLY'S
SILVER MINE," "CAT STORIES."
BOSTON:
ROBERTS BROTHERS.
1886.
Copyright,1877,
BY ROBERTS BROTHERS.
University Press:
JOHN WILSON AND SON, CAMBRIDGE.
_I._
_What lover best his love doth prove and show?_
_The one whose words are swiftest, love to state?_
_The one who measures out his love by weight_
_In costly gifts which all men see and know?_
_Nay! words are cheap and easy: they may go_
_For what men think them worth: or soon or late,_
_They are but air. And gifts? Still cheaper rate_
_Are they at which men barter to and fro_
_Where love is not!_
_One thing remains. Oh, Love,_
_Thou hast so seldom seen it on the earth,_
_No name for it has ever sprung to birth;_
_To give one's own life up one's love to prove._
_Not in the martyr's death, but in the dearth_
_Of daily life's most wearing daily groove._
_II_.
_And unto him who this great thing hath done,_
_What does Great Love return? No speedy joy!_
_That swift delight which beareth large alloy_
_Is guerdon Love bestowed on him who won_
_A lesser trust: the happiness begun_
_In happiness, of happiness may cloy,_
_And, its own subtle foe, itself destroy._
_But steadfast, tireless, quenchless as the sun_
_Doth grow that gladness which hath root in pain._
_Earth's common griefs assail this soul in vain._
_Great Love himself, too poor to pay such debt,_
_Doth borrow God's great peace which passeth yet_
_All understanding. Full tenfold again_
_Is found the life, laid down without regret!_