| YES, you have it; I can see. | |
| Beautiful?… Dear, look at me! | |
| Look and let my shame confess | |
| Triumph after weariness. | |
| Beautiful? Ah, yes. | 5 |
| |
| Lift it where the beams are bright; | |
| Hold it where the western light, | |
| Shining in above my bed, | |
| Throws a glory on your head. | |
| Now it is all said. | 10 |
| |
| All there was for me to say | |
| From the first until to-day. | |
| Long denied and long deferred, | |
| Now I say it in one word— | |
| Now; and you have heard. | 15 |
| |
| Life would have its way with us, | |
| And I’ve called it glorious: | |
| For I know the glory now | |
| And I read it on your brow. | |
| You have shown me how. | 20 |
| |
| I can feel your cheeks all wet, | |
| But your eyes will not forget: | |
| In the frown you cannot hide | |
| I can read where faith and pride | |
| Are not satisfied. | 25 |
| |
| But the word was, two should live: | |
| Two should suffer—and forgive: | |
| By the steep and weary way, | |
| For the glory of the clay, | |
| Two should have their day. | 30 |
| |
| We have toiled and we have wept | |
| For the gift the gods have kept: | |
| Clashing and unreconciled | |
| When we might as well have smiled, | |
| We have played the child. | 35 |
| |
| But the clashing is all past, | |
| And the gift is yours at last. | |
| Lift it—hold it high again!… | |
| Did I doubt you now and then? | |
| Well, we are not men. | 40 |
| |
| Never mind; we know the way,— | |
| And I do not need to stay. | |
| Let us have it well confessed: | |
| You to triumph, I to rest. | |
| That will be the best. | 45 |
