Page:The forerunner, his parables and poems.djvu/69



, wait yet awhile, my eager friend.

I shall yield but too soon this wasted thing,

Whose agony overwrought and useless

Exhausts your patience.

I would not have your honest hunger

Wait upon these moments:

But this chain, though made of a breath,

Is hard to break.

And the will to die,

Stronger than all things strong,

Is stayed by a will to live

Feebler than all things feeble.

Forgive me comrade; I tarry too long.

It is memory that holds my spirit;

A procession of distant days,

A vision of youth spent in a dream, [53]