Patience, hard thing! the hard thing but to pray, <br />But bid for, Patience is! Patience who asks <br />Wants war, wants wounds; weary his times, his tasks; <br />To do without, take tosses, and obey. <br /> Rare patience roots in these, and, these away, <br />Nowhere. Natural heart's ivy, Patience masks <br />Our ruins of wrecked past purpose. There she basks <br />Purple eyes and seas of liquid leaves all day. <br /> <br /> We hear our hearts grate on themselves: it kills <br />To bruise them dearer. Yet the rebellious wills <br />Of us we do bid God bend to him even so. <br /> And where is he who more and more distils <br />Delicious kindness?—He is patient. Patience fills <br />His crisp combs, and that comes those ways we know.<br /><br />Gerard Manley Hopkins<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/patience-hard-thing-the-hard-thing-but-to-pray/
