Poems of Power

<h2><SPAN name="poem62"></SPAN>THREE FRIENDS</h2> <p class="poetry">Of all the blessings which my life has known,<br/> I value most, and most praise God for three:<br/> Want, Loneliness, and Pain, those comrades true,</p> <p class="poetry">Who masqueraded in the garb of foes<br/> For many a year, and filled my heart with dread.<br/> Yet fickle joys, like false, pretentious friends,<br/> Have proved less worthy than this trio.&nbsp; First,</p> <p class="poetry">Want taught me labour, led me up the steep<br/> And toilsome paths to hills of pure delight,<br/> Trod only by the feet that know fatigue,<br/> And yet press on until the heights appear.</p> <p class="poetry">Then loneliness and hunger of the heart<br/> Sent me upreaching to the realms of space,<br/> Till all the silences grew eloquent,<br/> And all their loving forces hailed me friend.</p> <p class="poetry">Last, pain taught prayer! placed in my hand the staff<br/> Of close communion with the over-soul,<br/> That I might lean upon it to the end,<br/> And find myself made strong for any strife.</p> <p class="poetry">And then these three who had pursued my steps<br/> Like stern, relentless foes, year after year,<br/> Unmasked, and turned their faces full on me,<br/> And lo! they were divinely beautiful,<br/> For through them shone the lustrous eyes of Love.</p> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />