| Andrew Macphail, comp. The Book of Sorrow. 1916. | | | XXXIV. Compensation
Sorrow | | By Aubrey Thomas de Vere (1814–1902) |
| | | COUNT each affliction, whether light or grave, | |
| God’s messenger sent down to thee; do thou | |
| With courtesy receive him; rise and bow; | |
| And, ere his shadow pass thy threshold, crave | |
| Permission first his heavenly feet to lave; | 5 |
| Then lay before him all thou hast; allow | |
| No cloud of passion to usurp thy brow, | |
| Or mar thy hospitality; no wave | |
| Of mortal tumult to obliterate | |
| The soul’s marmoreal calmness: Grief should be, | 10 |
| Like joy, majestic, equable, sedate; | |
| Confirming, cleansing, raising, making free; | |
| Strong to consume small troubles; to commend | |
| Great thoughts, grave thoughts, thoughts lasting to the end. | | | | |
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