Explore "Subsidy" by George MacDonald on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
If thou wouldst live the Truth in very deed, / Thou hast thy joy, but thou hast more of pain.
Others will live in peace, and thou be fain / To bargain with despair, and in thy need / To make thy meal upon the scantiest weed.
These palaces, for thee they stand in vain; / Thine is a ruinous hut, and oft the rain / Shall drench thee in the midnight; yea, the speed / Of earth outstrip thee, pilgrim, while thy feet / Move slowly up the heights. Yet will there come / Through the time-rents about thy moving cell, / _Shot from the Truth's own bow, and flaming sweet,_ / An arrow for despair, and oft the hum / Of far-off populous realms where spirits dwell.