Page:Poems Blake.djvu/58

THE SUNSHINE OF THE HEART.

You ask the boon of wealth and power,
 To crown your envied name,
That earth should fling her choicest dower
 Around your path to fame;
You ask to conquer in the strife,—
 Take then your chosen part;
I'd rather fold within my life
 The sunshine of the heart.

I'd rather know how thus to win
 A balm from every pain,
Thus, even from the shade of sin,
 Some purer strength to gain;
To live in hope, to trust in right,
 To smile when shadows start,
To walk through darkness as through light
 With sunshine in the heart.

You only claim from outward things
 Their meed of joy to win,
Forgetting that life's deepest springs
 Must always rise within;