University of Virginia Library

LAST NOT LEAST.

Though girt by shattered idols, yet once more
I left for one a niche within my life,
And gave it largely of my richest store,
For it was dearer far than child or wife;
And while the hours with goodly gifts were rife,
I brought it all the sunny seasons bore,
The purple raiment and the golden ore,
And walled it in from every wave of strife.

737

But trouble entered as a damnèd elf,
While all the beauty perished as it past,
And from its place the pampered god was cast;
It was a ruler throned by pride and pelf,
And though not least of idols it was last,
For, ah, the thing I worshipped was myself.