Explore "Bitter-Sweet (Songs of Hearth and Altar)" by Henry Van Dyke on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Just to give up, and trust / All to a Fate unknown, / Plodding along life's road in the dust, / Bounded by walls of stone; / Never to have a heart at peace; / Never to see when care will cease; / Just to be still when sorrows fall -- / This is the bitterest lesson of all.
Just to give up, and rest / All on a Love secure, / Out of a world that's hard at the best, / Looking to heaven as sure; / Ever to hope, through cloud and fear, / In darkest night, that the dawn is near; / Just to wait at the Master's feet -- / Surely, now, the bitter is sweet.