Part 1 — OF THOSE WHO WALK ALONE
Reading edition
Women there are on earth, most sweet and high, Who lose their own, and walk bereft and lonely, Loving that one lost heart until they die, Loving it only.
And so they never see beside them grow Children, whose coming is like breath of flowers; Consoled by subtler loves the angels know Through childless hours.
Good deeds they do: they comfort and they bless In duties others put off till the morrow; Their look is balm, their touch is tenderness To all in sorrow.
Betimes the world smiles at them, as 'twere shame, This maiden guise, long after youth's departed; But in God's Book they bear another name— "The faithful-hearted."
Faithful in life, and faithful unto death, Such souls, in sooth, illume with lustre splendid That glimpsed, glad land wherein, the Vision saith, Earth's wrongs are ended.
Richard Burton [1861-