Classic Poem

Of old God rested 'mid the heavenly flowers,
Far from all sounds and sights of man's despair:
The blue sky filled with light the deathless bowers
And perfect peace was there.

All pure delights were present to his hand:
The stars at night were ministers sublime:
Joy flooded like a stream the painless land
That took no heed of time.

Far-off man toiled amid the nether gloom,
And woman wept, and death ruled bitterly.
Ruin and dread destruction were man's doom;
To love, and then to die.

But Love arose and said, “While one man sighs
Shall I contented dwell beyond the gloom?
While sorrow walks the earth with burning eyes
Or shudders at hope's tomb?”

Strong Love stooped downward to the lowest hell,
And made the deepest agony divine.
Love said, “With even the saddest it is well
Now, for their pain is mine.”

And so it came to pass that man arose
And blossoms bloomed upon the paths he trod:
Yet all his joy (though man forgets) he owes
To the deep pain of God.