15. Partnership

YES, you have it; I can see.

Beautiful?… Dear, look at me!

Look and let my shame confess

Triumph after weariness.

Beautiful? Ah, yes.

Lift it where the beams are bright;

Hold it where the western light,

Shining in above my bed,

Throws a glory on your head.

Now it is all said.

All there was for me to say

From the first until to-day.

Long denied and long deferred,

Now I say it in one word—

Now; and you have heard.

Life would have its way with us,

And I’ve called it glorious:

For I know the glory now

And I read it on your brow.

You have shown me how.

I can feel your cheeks all wet,

But your eyes will not forget:

In the frown you cannot hide

I can read where faith and pride

Are not satisfied.

But the word was, two should live:

Two should suffer—and forgive:

By the steep and weary way,

For the glory of the clay,

Two should have their day.

We have toiled and we have wept

For the gift the gods have kept:

Clashing and unreconciled

When we might as well have smiled,

We have played the child.

But the clashing is all past,

And the gift is yours at last.

Lift it—hold it high again!…

Did I doubt you now and then?

Well, we are not men.

Never mind; we know the way,—

And I do not need to stay.

Let us have it well confessed:

You to triumph, I to rest.

That will be the best.