I STILL can suffer pain; I strive and hope in vain; My wounds may not all heal, Nor time their depth reveal. So dreamed I, of a summer day, As in the oak's cool shade I lay, And thought that shining, lightsome river Went rippling, rippling on forever: - That I should bend with pain, Should sing and love in vain; That I should fret and pine, And hopeless thought define. I want a true and simple heart, That asks no pleasure in a part, But seeks the whole; and finds the soul, A heart at rest, in sure control. I shall accept all I may have, Or fine or foul, or rich or brave; Accept that measure in life's cup, And touch the rim and raise it up. Some drop of Time's strange glass it holds, So much endurance it enfolds; Or base and small, or broadly meant, I cannot spill God's element. Dion or C…sar drained no more, Not Solon, nor a Plato's lore; So much had they the power to do, So much hadst thou, and equals too. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE RUBAIYAT, 1879 EDITION: 13 by OMAR KHAYYAM A DOUBTING HEART by ADELAIDE ANNE PROCTER SONNET: 71 by WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE TO JANE: THE INVITATION by PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY EASTER (TO A BASE AND TWO TREBLES) by JOSEPH BEAUMONT |