XXXI - TO MOTHER MARYANNE


To see the infinite pity of this place,
The mangled limb, the devastated face,
The innocent sufferer smiling at the rod -
A fool were tempted to deny his God.
He sees, he shrinks. But if he gaze again,
Lo, beauty springing from the breast of pain!
He marks the sisters on the mournful shores;
And even a fool is silent and adores.


Guest House, Kalawao, Molokai.


XXXII - IN MEMORIAM E. H.


I KNEW a silver head was bright beyond compare,
I knew a queen of toil with a crown of silver hair.
Garland of valour and sorrow, of beauty and renown,
Life, that honours the brave, crowned her himself with the crown.

The beauties of youth are frail, but this was a jewel of age.
Life, that delights in the brave, gave it himself for a gage.
Fair was the crown to behold, and beauty its poorest part -
At once the scar of the wound and the order pinned on the heart.

The beauties of man are frail, and the silver lies in the dust,