Poems (Blake)/The Sunshine of the Heart

by Mary Elizabeth Blake

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;
Forgetting that from Time's dim shore
 Earth's treasures all depart,
While I may keep forevermore
 The sunshine of the heart.

This is the magic I would hold,
 My spell to win me love;
My wand to change all dross to gold,
 My guide to peace above;
My strength against the blast to bow,
 My shield 'gainst every dart,—
That I may keep, as I do now,
 The sunshine of the heart.

And you—if when you grasp at last
 The prize your deeds would claim,
You long for a discarded past
 And spurn your empty fame—
If you should sigh, with grief opprest,
 To see your dreams depart,
Come, share my love, my peace, my rest,—
 My sunshine of the heart!