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R XIV

ANODYNES FOR SORROW

(To be Taken in the Hour of Great Need)

INVICTUS

BY WILLIAM ERNEST HENLEY

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance

I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbow'd.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years

Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:

I am the captain of my soul.

IF SO TOMORROW SAVES

BY CHRISTINA ROSSETTI

Heaven overarches earth and sea,
Earth-sadness and sea-bitterness.

Heaven overarches you and me:

A little while and we shall be― ·

Please God-where there is no more sea
Nor barren wilderness.

Heaven overarches you and me,

And all earth's gardens and her graves.
Look up with me, until we see

The day break and the shadows flee.
What though to-night wrecks you and me
If so to-morrow saves?

THE BALANCE

BY GEORGE STERLING

Let us be just with life. Although it bear
A thousand thorns for every perfect rose,
And though the happy day have mournful close,
Slumber awaits to house the mind from care.
Howe'er the shoe pinch, still must we compare
Unnumbered friends with so infrequent foes.

The path we know-its end what traveller knows? Appraising life, let us at least be fair.

Whose memory but holds the blinding bliss
Of love's high-noon and paradisal kiss?

Say not, in hours when deepening shadows fall,
That life is ill, but leave the pain unsaid,
Knowing that in those gracious moments fled
The far and mighty joy repaid for all.

ILLUSION

BY NEVAH TREBOR

Sundown is but the mortal eye's confusion,
Like death, the great illusion.

The spirit whose corporeal ember chills
Is bright on farther hills.

Bird-man, fly westward with the westering light,-Would you outdistance Night.

THE WIND OF SORROW

BY HENRY VAN DYKE

The fire of love was burning, yet so low
That in the peaceful dark it made no rays,
And in the light of perfect-placid days
The ashes hid the smouldering embers' glow.
Vainly, for love's delight, we sought to throw
New pleasures on the pyre to make it blaze:
In life's calm air and tranquil-prosperous ways
We missed the radiant heat of long ago.

Then in the night, a night of sad alarms,
Bitter with pain and black with fog of fears
That drove us trembling to each other's arms,
Across the gulf of darkness and salt tears

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