Is there a secret Joy, that may not weep, <br />For every flower that ends its little span, <br />For every child that groweth up to man, <br />For every captive bird a cage doth keep, <br />For every aching eye that went to sleep <br />Long ages back, when other eyes began <br />To see and know and love as now they can, <br />Unravelling God's wonders heap by heap? <br />Or doth the Past lie 'mid Eternity <br />In charnel dens that rot and reek alway, <br />A dismal light for those that go astray, <br />A pit of foul deformity-to be, <br />Beauty, a dreadful source of growth for thee <br />When thou wouldst lift thine eyes to greet the day?<br /><br />George MacDonald<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/life-or-death-19/
