Patience, hard thing! the hard thing but to pray,   
But bid for, Patience is! Patience who asks   
Wants war, wants wounds; weary his times, his tasks;   
To do without, take tosses, and obey.   
  Rare patience roots in these, and, these away,           
Nowhere. Natural heart’s ivy, Patience masks   
Our ruins of wrecked past purpose. There she basks   
Purple eyes and seas of liquid leaves all day.   
   
  We hear our hearts grate on themselves: it kills   
To bruise them dearer. Yet the rebellious wills    
Of us we do bid God bend to him even so.   
  And where is he who more and more distils   
Delicious kindness?—He is patient. Patience fills   
His crisp combs, and that comes those ways we know.