Whence comes Solace?—Not from seeing

What is doing, suffering, being,

Not from noting Life’s conditions,

Nor from heeding Time’s monitions;

   But in cleaving to the Dream,

   And in gazing at the gleam

   Whereby gray things golden seem.

II

Thus do I this heyday, holding

Shadows but as lights unfolding,

As no specious show this moment

With its irisèd embowment;

   But as nothing other than

   Part of a benignant plan;

   Proof that earth was made for man.

February 1899.