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Home  »  The Book of the Sonnet  »  James Russell Lowell (1819–1891)

Hunt and Lee, comps. The Book of the Sonnet. 1867.

IV. To A. C. L.

James Russell Lowell (1819–1891)

THROUGH suffering and sorrow thou hast passed

To show us what a woman true may be:

They have not taken sympathy from thee,

Nor made thee any other than thou wast,

Save as some tree, which in a sudden blast

Sheddeth those blossoms that are weakly grown

Upon the air, but keepeth every one

Whose strength gives warrant of good fruit at last:

So thou hast shed some blooms of gayety,

But never one of steadfast cheerfulness;

Nor hath thy knowledge of adversity

Robbed thee of any faith in happiness,

But rather cleared thine inner eyes to see

How many simple ways there are to bless!