Page:Poems Angier.djvu/199

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A FOE AND A FRIEND.
  A foe and a friend
  On man's pathway attend,
One nerves him with life's ills to cope;
  Tells of courage to bear,
  And to banish despair,
He cheerily whispers of Hope.

  Not so with the foe,
  Wherever we go,
He follows with dark, frowning face;
  No kind words of cheer,
  From his thin lips we hear,
He bodes only ill to our race.

The spectre grim, in memory's hall—
That binds the soul in terror's thrall;
The raven's croak, the owlet's scream—
The nightmare of a troubled dream—
But faint types these of that deep gloom
Which dark Distrust flings o'er Hope's tomb.