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Home  »  Poetry: A Magazine of Verse  »  Gladys Cromwell

Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). The New Poetry: An Anthology. 1917.

The Crowning Gift

Gladys Cromwell

I HAVE had courage to accuse;

And a fine wit that could upbraid;

And a nice cunning that could bruise;

And a shrewd wisdom, unafraid

Of what weak mortals fear to lose.

I have had virtue to despise

The sophistry of pious fools;

I have had firmness to chastise;

And intellect to make me rules,

To estimate and exorcise.

I have had knowledge to be true;

My faith could obstacles remove;

But now, by failure taught anew,

I would have courage now to love,

And lay aside the strength I knew.