LIFE
XVIII
READ, sweet, how others strove,Till we are stouter;What they renounced,Till we are less afraid;How many times they boreThe faithful witness,Till we are helped,As if a kingdom cared!
Read then of faithThat shone above the fagot;Clear strains of hymnThe river could not drown;Brave names of menAnd celestial women,Passed out of recordInto renown!
XIX
PAIN has an element of blank;It cannot recollectWhen it began, or if there wereA day when it was not.
It has no future but itself,Its infinite realms containIts past, enlightened to perceiveNew periods of pain.
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