So shall she win A wrestler with sin, Supremely to a place above the years, And help men rise To what is wise And true beyond their mortal finite scan-- The purblind gaze of man; Aiding with introspective eyes His soul to see a higher plan Of life beyond this life; above the gyves Of circumstance that bind him in his place Of doubt and keep away his face From what alone survives; And what assures Immortal life to that within, that gives Of its own self, And through its giving, lives, And evermore endures.
Life was unkind to him; All things went wrong: Fortune assigned to him Merely a song.
Ever a mystery Here to his heart; In his life's history Love played no part.
Carve on the granite, There at the end, Where all may scan it, _Death was his friend_.
_Giving him all he missed Here upon Earth-- Love and the call he missed All that was worth._
End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Cup of Comus, by Madison J. Cawein