To keep your heart unbroken,
Hold it in your hand.

That your love may finish
Calm as it begun,
Learn this lesson better,
Dear, than I have done.

Years hence, perhaps, this warning
You shall give again,
In just the self-same words, dear,
And--just as much--in vain.




VERSE: MAXIMUS


Many, if God should make them kings,
Might not disgrace the throne He gave;
How few who could as well fulfil
The holier office of a slave.

I hold him great who, for Love's sake
Can give, with generous, earnest will,--
Yet he who takes for Love's sweet sake,
I think I hold more generous still.

I prize the instinct that can turn