Not with a flash that rends the blue <br />Shall fall the avenging sword. <br />Gently as the evening dew <br />Descends the mighty Lord. <br /> <br />His dreadful balances are made <br />To move with moon and tide; <br />Yet shall not mercy be afraid <br />Nor justice be denied. <br /> <br />The dreams that seemed to waste away, <br />The kindliness forgot, <br />Were singing in your heart today <br />Although you knew them not. <br /> <br />The sun shall not forget his road, <br />Nor the high stars their rhyme, <br />The traveller with the heavier load <br />Has one less hill to climb. <br /> <br />And, though a darker shadow fall <br />On every struggling age, <br />How shall it be if, after all, <br />He share our pilgrimage? <br /> <br />The end we mourn is not the end. <br />The dust has nimble wings. <br />But truth and beauty have a friend <br />At the deep heart of things. <br /> <br />He will not speak? What friend belies <br />His love with idle breath? <br />We read it in each others' eyes, <br />And ask no more in death.<br /><br />Alfred Noyes<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/compensations-2/
