Page:Ethel Churchill Fragments I.pdf/34



Life's best gifts are bought dearly. Wealth is won By years of toil, and often comes too late: With pleasure comes satiety; and pomp Is compassed round with vexing vanities: And genius, earth's most glorious gift, that lasts When all beside is perished in the dust— How bitter is the suffering it endures! How dark the penalty that it exacts!