 | Areytos or songs and ballads of the South |  |
[II. If the good star that quicken'd at my birth]
If the good star that quicken'd at my birth,In spiritual tie and consciousness,
With that frail life, decreed a toil on earth
Which earth hath never yet allow'd to bless,
Be at this moment gazing from its place,
In search of mine, a sympathy with shame,
And the dread cloud that settles on my fame,
Will blotch for aye the beauty in her face!
Yet have I struggled till all stars grew pale,
Nor shamed them by that struggle—was it mine
To make, like theirs, the face of fortune shine,
To shield her ever from the night-cloud's veil?
Was not the struggle much, that brought distress
And pain? and is't my shame that cannot make success?
| Areytos or songs and ballads of the South | |