On Waiting

"Learn to wait - life's hardest lesson,
Conned perchance, through blinding tears,
While the heart-throbs slowly echo
To the tread of passing years.

Learn to wait - hope's slow fruition;
Faint not, though the way seem long;
There is joy in each condition,
Hearts, through suffering, may grow strong.

Constant sunshine, however welcome,
Never would ripen fruit or flower;
Giant oaks owe half their greatness
To the scathing tempest's power.

Thus a soul untouched by sorrow
Aims not at a higher state;
Joy seeks not a brightest morrow,
Only sad hearts learn to wait.

Human strength and human greatness
Spring not from life's sunny side,
Heroes must be more than driftwood
Floating on a waveless tide."

-The humbler poets: a collection of newspaper and periodical verse, 1870-1885