 | Poems and verses by Mary Mapes Dodge |  |
23
THE HUMAN TIE.
“As if life were not sacred, too.”—
George Eliot.
George Eliot.
Speak tenderly! For he is dead,” we say;
“With gracious hand smooth all his roughened past,
And fullest measure of reward forecast,
Forgetting naught that gloried his brief day.”
Yet of the brother, who, along our way,
Prone with his burdens, heart-worn in the strife,
Totters before us—how we search his life,
Censure, and sternly punish, while we may.
Oh, weary are the paths of Earth, and hard!
And living hearts alone are ours to guard.
At least, begrudge not to the sore distraught
The reverent silence of our pitying thought.
Life, too, is sacred; and he best forgives
Who says: “He errs, but—tenderly! He lives.”
| Poems and verses by Mary Mapes Dodge | |