Page:Poems Piatt.djvu/131

Therefore, oh, next to God, I pray you keep
 Yourself as your own friend, the tried, the true.
Sit your own watch—others will surely sleep.
 Weep your own tears. Ask none to die with you.

III.

BROKEN PROMISE.

After strange stars, inscrutable, on high;
 After strange seas beneath his floating feet;
After the glare in many a brooding eye,—
 I wonder if the cry of "Land" was sweet?

Or did the Atlantic gold, the Atlantic palm,
 The Atlantic bird and flower, seem poor, at best,
To the grey Admiral under sun and calm,
 After the passionate doubt and faith of quest?

IV.

UTTER DARKNESS.

If I should have void darkness in my eyes
 While there were violets in the sun to see;
If I should fail to hear my child's sweet cries,
 Or any bird's voice in our threshold tree;