Three Friends

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