DOUBT
by: Helen Hunt Jackson
(1830-1885)
- HEY bade
me cast the thing away,
- They pointed to my hands all bleeding,
- They listened not to all my pleading;
- The thing I meant I could not say;
- I knew that I should rue the day
- If once I cast that thing away.
-
- I grasped it firm, and bore the pain;
- The thorny husks I stripped and scattered;
- If I could reach its heart, what mattered
- If other men saw not my gain,
- Or even if I should be slain?
- I knew the risks; I chose the pain.
-
- O, had I cast that thing away,
- I had not found what most I cherish,
- A faith without which I should perish,--
- The faith which, like a kernel, lay
- Hid in the husks which on that day
- My instinct would not throw away!
"Doubt" is reprinted from
Poems. Helen Jackson. Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1892. |
MORE POEMS BY HELEN HUNT JACKSON |
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