THE PADDOCK
What a change, too, in our eyes!
From this vantage-point of view
Over they can see, and through:
Watch the struggle from the winning:
Glad and grateful comprehend
Doubtful road and dark beginning
In this proud and prosperous end.
Nay—this morning’s blue is brighten’d
By the night’s rain overpast,
Happiness is help’d and heighten’d
By the relish of At Last—
’Tis because we struggled we
Taste so sweet our victory!
For ’tis done, the long, long strife!
It’s all over, the stiff climb!
Now, good friends at last with Life,
We can pause and take our time;—
Breathing free now on the summit
(Vigour pulsing, for our pains,
Hot and merry through our veins),
View the scene, enjoy the breeze,
Take the breath of basking flowers,
And afford some easy hours;
Then, through level lawns of grass,
In a pathway straight and sure,
Leisurely the road retaking,
Still together onward pass.
While, no more in scuds and gleams,
Pray’d-for, hoped-for, far-off, near,
Fortune’s random rays appear—
No! its shining self is here.
Right o’erhead its radiance beams,
Kind, continual, and clear!
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