THY PART.
To love and to be loved again
Was all she ever asked or sought,
To know a mother's joy and pain
And be into life's fabric wrought;
Her simple faith was satisfied
With what she felt and understood,
To walk in sunny ways she tried,
Believing, practising the good.
To others' need and use she brought,
With constant and unconscious grace,
The best she had, her only thought
To be of service in her place.
The leisured, laughing, careless throng
By her unheeded went their way,
But in her eyes a silent song
Grew ever deeper day by day.
········
Hast thou done reverence in thy heart
To such as she, who serve and wait—
Been mindful in thy place and part
That self-forgetful souls grow great?
Hast thou her narrower portion made
By sympathy more large and sweet?
Or ever branch of laurel laid
At her unconscious, tireless feet?
Hast thou not eaten of her bread
And hurried forth forgetfully?
Or stood, perchance, with unbared head
And smiled at her simplicity?
Nay, brother, she who in her soul
Has kept the altar-fires alight
May all unconscious touch the goal
And outrank thee in Heaven's sight.