Afternoon

<SPAN name="XXV"></SPAN>XXV<br/> <br/> <br/> As with others, time and change and strife&mdash;<br/> Morose time and moods of hate&mdash;<br/> Have left their sombre scars upon our life;<br/> <span style="margin-left: 1em;">But never yet our hearts have heard,</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 1em;">Even at close of days unfortunate,</span><br/> The utterance of an unpardonable word.<br/> <span style="margin-left: 1em;">Ardent, luminous sincerity</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 1em;">Was our wisdom and delight,</span><br/> So that our fervid souls in verity<br/> Tempered themselves as in a bath of light.<br/> <br/> We told each other our most humble griefs,<br/> <span style="margin-left: 1em;">Grief by grief, a rosary,</span><br/> Told each other, weeping tears of love;<br/> <span style="margin-left: 1em;">And then confidingly,</span><br/> At each avowal, with our lips we pressed<br/> A kiss on every fault confessed.<br/> <br/> Thus simply, without weakness or despair,<br/> We save us from ourselves and worldly harms,<br/> And ward off suffering and gnawing care,<br/> <span style="margin-left: 1em;">And see our spirits born again;</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 1em;">As reappear when washed by rain,</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 1em;">When sunlight sweetly dries and warms,</span><br/> The purity of glass and gold of window pane.<br/> <br/> <br/> <br/> <br/> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />