| Andrew Macphail, comp. The Book of Sorrow. 1916. | | | XXXIII. Resignation
In Memory of Edward Quillinan | | By Matthew Arnold (1822–1888) |
| | | I SAW him sensitive in frame, | |
| I knew his spirits low; | |
| And wish’d him health, success, and fame— | |
| I do not wish it now. | |
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| For these are all their own reward, | 5 |
| And leave no good behind; | |
| They try us, oftenest make us hard, | |
| Less modest, pure, and kind. | |
| |
| Alas! yet to the suffering man, | |
| In this his mortal state, | 10 |
| Friends could not give what fortune can— | |
| Health, ease, a heart elate. | |
| |
| But he is now by fortune foil’d | |
| No more; and we retain | |
| The memory of a man unspoil’d, | 15 |
| Sweet, generous, and humane; | |
| |
| With all the fortunate have not, | |
| With gentle voice and brow.— | |
| Alive, we would have changed his lot! | |
| We would not change it now! | 20 | | | |
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