Love's Courage by Gilbert Parker — Read

Courage have I to face all bitter things, / That start out darkly from the rugged path, / Leading to life's achievement; not God's wrath / Would sit so heavy when my lady sings.

I did not know what life meant till I felt / Her hand clasp mine in compact to the end; / Till her dear voice said, "See, I am your friend!"

And at her feet, amazed, my spirit knelt.

And yet I spoke but hoarsely then my thought, / I groped amid a thousand forces there; / Her understanding all my meaning caught,

It was illumined in her atmosphere.

She read it line by line, and then there fell / The curtain on the shrine-and it is well.