Page:Lyrics of Lowly Life Dunbar (1896).djvu/72



I think I should not mind the chill baptismal spray,

Nor find my hand and heart and all the world so cold.

If you could walk with me upon the strand to-day,

And tell me that my longing love had won your own,

I think all my sad thoughts would then be put away,

And I could give back laughter for the Ocean's moan!

HERE are no beaten paths to Glory's height,

There are no rules to compass greatness known;

Each for himself must cleave a path alone,

And press his own way forward in the fight.

Smooth is the way to ease and calm delight,

And soft the road Sloth chooseth for her own;

But he who craves the flower of life full-blown,