Of all the blessings which my life has known, <br />I value most, and most praise God for three: <br />Want, Loneliness and Pain, those comrades true, <br />Who, masqueraded in the garb of foes <br />For many a year, and filled my heart with dread. <br />Yet fickle joys, like false, pretentious friends, <br />Have proved less worthy than this trio. First, <br />Want taught me labor, led me up the steep <br />And toilsome paths to hills of pure delight, <br />Trod only by the feet that know fatigue, <br />And yet press on until the heights appear. <br />Then loneliness and hunger of the heart <br />Sent me upreaching to the realms of space, <br />Till all the silences grew eloquent, <br />And all their loving forces hailed me friend. <br />Last, pain taught prayer! placed in my hand the staff <br />Of close communion with the over-soul, <br />That I might lean upon it to the end, <br />And find myself made strong for any strife. <br />And then these three who had pursued my steps <br />Like stern, relentless foes, year after year, <br />Unmasked, and turned their faces full on me, <br />And lo! they were divinely beautiful, <br />For through them shone the lustrous eyes of Love.<br /><br />Ella Wheeler Wilcox<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/three-friends-7/
