Lyrics of Life (1909)/Privilege

by Florence Earle Coates

For other versions of this work, see Privilege.

PRIVILEGE

Blest is the right to share
The grief of hearts forlorn,—
With other men to bear
What must by men be borne;
For night bestows dawn's orient rose
And glories of the morn;

And as its shadow-wing
Lends to the sunlight worth,
So out of suffering
Arise the joys of earth—
The good and ill, united still
And offspring of one birth.

Great is the gift of life
To him who lives indeed,
A partner in the strife,
The toil, the pain, that speed—
Like hidden rills veined through the hills—
Life's ocean-deeps to feed!