Page:Complete Poetical Works of John Greenleaf Whittier (1895).djvu/200

168   The weariness of unshared power,
 * The loneliness of greatness?

O dawns and sunsets, lend to him
 * Your beauty and your wonder!

Blithe sparrow, sing thy summer song
 * His solemn shadow under!

Play lightly on his slender keys,
 * O wind of summer, waking

For hills like these the sound of seas
 * On far-off beaches breaking!

And let the eagle and the crow
 * Find shelter in his branches,

When winds shake down his winter snow
 * In silver avalanches.

The brave are braver for their cheer,
 * The strongest need assurance,

The sigh of longing makes not less
 * The lesson of endurance.