| Andrew Macphail, comp. The Book of Sorrow. 1916. | | | XXI. Interlude
Epochs
iv. Sympathy | | By Emma Lazarus (1849–1887) |
| | | IT comes not in such wise as she had deemed, | |
| Else might she still have clung to her despair. | |
| More tender, grateful than she could have dreamed, | |
| Fond hands passed pitying over brows and hair, | |
| And gentle words borne softly through the air, | 5 |
| Calming her weary sense and wildered mind, | |
| By welcome, dear communion with her kind…. | |
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| One who through conquered trouble had grown wise, | |
| To read the grief unspoken, unexpressed, | |
| The misery of the blank and heavy eyes,— | 10 |
| Or through youth’s infinite compassion guessed | |
| The heavy burden,—such a one brought rest, | |
| And bade her lay aside her doubts and fears, | |
| While the hard pain dissolved in blessed tears. | | | | |
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