Page:The poems of Edmund Clarence Stedman, 1908.djvu/459

ALL IN A LIFETIME So ends the legend, and ye well may guess

(Who, being untempted, walk in thoughtless pride)

God of his grace can make the sinful pure,

And while earth lasts shall mercy still endure.

ALL IN A LIFETIME

shalt have sun and shower from heaven above,

Thou shalt have flower and thorn from earth below,

Thine shall be foe to hate and friend to love,

Pleasures that others gain, the ills they know,—

And all in a lifetime.

Hast thou a golden day, a starlit night,

Mirth, and music, and love without alloy?

Leave no drop undrunken of thy delight:

Sorrow and shadow follow on thy joy.

'T is all in a lifetime.

What if the battle end and thou hast lost?

Others have lost the battles thou hast won;

Haste thee, bind thy wounds, nor count the cost:

Over the field will rise to-morrow's sun.

'T is all in a lifetime.

Laugh at the braggart sneer, the open scorn,—

'Ware of the secret stab, the slanderous lie:

For seventy years of turmoil thou wast born,

Bitter and sweet are thine till these go by.

'T is all in a lifetime.

Reckon thy voyage well, and spread the sail,—

Wind and calm and current shall warp thy way;

Compass shall set thee false, and chart shall fail;

Ever the waves will use thee for their play.

'T is all in a lifetime.

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