Page:The poems of Richard Watson Gilder, Gilder, 1908.djvu/80

52 A MADONNA OF FRA LIPPO LIPPI

COST

Heaven's cost is Hell, and perfect joy

Hurts as hurts sorrow; and because we win

Some boon of grace with the dread cost of sin,

Or suffering born of sin; because the alloy

Of blood but makes the bliss of victory brighter;

Because true worth hath surest proof herein,

That it should be reproached, and called akin

To evil things—black making white the whiter;

Because no cost seems great near this—that He