O'ER many a wish frustrated, purpose foiled, Still dost thou weep, discouraged Soul of Man? Be comforted, since even Nature can Too rarely triumph fully where she toiled; Behold the tree, the flower, the cloud despoiled Of beauty, which was virtue in her plan; A thousand times her purposes outran Their issues, maimed and crippled, bent and soiled. If many evenings close in faintest gray Before one glorious sunset crowns the day, If, for one oak, a myriad acorns rot, If Nature fails a thousand times ere one Clear master-stroke of beauty fronts the sun, Man's frequent frailty may deject him not. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SONNET: 48 by GEORGE SANTAYANA ALIEN WOMEN; SONGKHLA, THAILAND by KAREN SWENSON EVE SPEAKS by LOUIS UNTERMEYER TO JOHN KEATS; SONNET by AMY LOWELL SONNET PREFIXED TO 'NENNIO, OR A TREATISE OF NOBILITY' by EDMUND SPENSER PEARLS OF THE FAITH: 29. AL-HAKIM by EDWIN ARNOLD |