 | Gerard & Isabel |  |
40
[Happy is the vessel]
Happy is the vesselEre it leave the haven,
Ere it seek the ocean.
Happy is the young heart
Ere it learn of evil,
Ere it find how cruel,
False and traitor-hearted
Are the smiling faces
Fawning on one favoured
By the King and fortune.
Youth and health and gladness,
Honour and high instinet,
Guileless heart and goodwill—
Many a shaft of evil
Is by these averted.
But the tireless serpent,
Jealously unsleeping,
In a careless hour
Snares the simple-hearted
When he thinks no evil;
Coils about his heart-strings,
Steals from him his secret,
Suddenly betrays him.
| Gerard & Isabel | |