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From “Bitter Sweet”
THUS is it all over the earth! | |
| That which we call the fairest, | |
| And prize for its surpassing worth, | |
| Is always rarest. | |
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| Iron is heaped in mountain piles, | 5 |
| And gluts the laggard forges; | |
| But gold-flakes gleam in dim defiles | |
| And lonely gorges. | |
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| The snowy marble flecks the land | |
| With heaped and rounded ledges, | 10 |
| But diamonds hide within the sand | |
| Their starry edges. | |
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| The finny armies clog the twine | |
| That sweeps the lazy river, | |
| But pearls come singly from the brine | 15 |
| With the pale diver. | |
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| God gives no value unto men | |
| Unmatched by meed of labor; | |
| And Cost of Worth has ever been | |
| The closest neighbor. * * * * * | 20 |
| All common good has common price; | |
| Exceeding good, exceeding; | |
| Christ bought the keys of Paradise | |
| By cruel bleeding; | |
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| And every soul that wins a place | 25 |
| Upon its hills of pleasure, | |
| Must give it all, and beg for grace | |
| To fill the measure. * * * * * | |
| Up the broad stairs that Value rears | |
| Stand motives beck’ning earthward, | 30 |
| To summon men to nobler spheres, | |
| And lead them worthward. | |
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