t notes, alas!
So often cleave the air
And smite the music as they pass,
And leave their poison there.

And oft, ah me! from some
Wild region of the heart
Will startling intimations come,
And peace at once depart.

With open foes without,
And secret foes within,
His heart must needs be brave and stout
That would life's battle win.

Evil

In the great wilderness
Through which I hold my way,
Is there no refuge from distress,
Where foes are kept at bay?

Saint Anthony of old
Could not from evil flee;
The desert cave was found to hold
His mortal enemy.

And knew untiring Paul
The world's relentless scorn;
While in his flesh, amid it all,
He bore another thorn.

Our common lot is cast
In a great camp of pain!
Until the night be over-past,
Some foe will yet remain.

* * * * *

With His Foes

The king of beasts was dead--
By an old hero slain;
Did dreams of honey for his bread
Dance through the hero's brain?

Or did he chafe at this:
That pain is everywhere?
Down, down, thou fabled right to bliss,
Life is to do and bear!

Beguiled, enslaved, made blind,
Yet unsubdued in will,
He kept the old heroic mind
To serve his country still.

And in recovered might
Pulled the tall pillars down,
Died _with_ his foes--_that was his right_--
And built his great renown.

* * * * *

For His Foes

Devotion all supreme
Throbs in the mighty psalm
Of One who filled our highest dream
And poured His healing balm;

Who worlds inherited
And yet renounced them all;
Who had not where to lay His head
And drank the cup of gall;

Who emptied of His power
Became the foremost man--
Calm at the great prophetic hour
Through which God's purpose ran;

Who in the darkest fight
Imagination knows,
Saluted Thee, Eternal Light,
And died as _for_ His foes.

* * * * *

The Master

The Master many a day
In pain and darkness wrought:
Through death to life He held His way,
All lands the glory caught.

And He unlocked the gain
Shut up in grievous loss,