Poems (Linn)/Patience

by Edith Willis Linn

For works with similar titles, see Patience.

PATIENCE.

MY heart was breaking with its doubt,
 The burden seemed too hard to bear,
The world was shorn of joy and light,
 There was no beauty anywhere;
And all my loving seemed in vain,
And all the world but made for pain.

In those sad hours unto my soul
 A gentle meek-eyed angel came,
And laid her hand upon my brow,
 And called me tenderly by name:
So soft her voice, so low, so dear,
My heart grew calm and still to hear.

"My child," she said, "can you not learn
 The lessons that in love I tell?
Can you not school your heart to bear
 Such seeming sorrows bravely, well?
When you have made me one with you
You shall be noble, strong and true."

Since then I feel she dwells with me;
 Her smiles of cheer to me belong;
Her voice can bring my heart repose;
 Her hand is ever sure and strong:
And thus I found a joy in pain,
Since it was mine so much to gain.