| William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Georgian Verse. 1909. | | | | Love, Hope, and Patience in Education | | By Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) |
| | | O’ER wayward childhood would’st thou hold firm rule, | |
| And sun thee in the light of happy faces; | |
| Love, Hope, and Patience, these must be thy graces, | |
| And in thine own heart let them first keep school. | |
| For as old Atlas on his broad neck places | 5 |
| Heaven’s starry globe, and there sustains it;—so | |
| Do these upbear the little world below | |
| Of Education,—Patience, Love, and Hope. | |
| Methinks, I see them grouped in seemly show, | |
| The straiten’d arms upraised, the palms aslope, | 10 |
| And robes that touching as adown they flow, | |
| Distinctly blend, like snow emboss’d in snow. | |
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| O part them never! If Hope prostrate lie, | |
| Love too will sink and die. | |
| But Love is subtle, and doth proof derive | 15 |
| From her own life that Hope is yet alive; | |
| And bending o’er with soul-transfusing eyes, | |
| And the soft murmurs of the mother dove, | |
| Wooes back the fleeting spirit, and half supplies;— | |
| Thus Love repays to Hope what Hope first gave to Love. | 20 |
| Yet haply there will come a weary day, | |
| When overtasked at length | |
| Both Love and Hope beneath the load give way. | |
| Then with a statue’s smile, a statue’s strength, | |
| Stands the mute sister, Patience, nothing loth, | 25 |
| And both supporting does the work of both. | | | | |
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