Page:Poems by Robert Louis Stevenson, Hitherto unpublished, 1921.djvu/83

 The variable moods they breed

Are but as April sun and shower,

That only seem to hinder—truly speed

Against the harvest hour.

Thy net in all rough waters cast,

In all fair pasturelands rejoice,

Thee shall such wealth of trials lead at last

To thy true home of choice.

So shalt thou grow, O youth, at length

Strong in endeavor, strong to bear

As having all things borne, thy lease of strength

Not perishable hair.

Not the frail tenement of health,

The uneasy mail of stoic pride

(A Nessus-shirt indeed!) the veer of wealth

In strong continual tide.

Not these, but in the constant heart,

That having all ways tried, at last

Holds, stout and patient, to the eternal chart,

Well tested in the past.

O, more than garlands for our heads,

Than drum and trumpet sounding loud, [ 73 ]