Discontent

Discontent

LIGHT human nature is too lightly tost

And ruffled without cause, complaining on--

Restless with rest, until, being overthrown,

It learneth to lie quiet. Let a frost

Or a small wasp have crept to the inner-most

Of our ripe peach, or let the wilful sun

Shine westward of our window,--straight we run

A furlongs sigh as if the world were lost.

But what time through the heart and through the brain

God hath transfixed us,--we, so moved before,

Attain to a calm. Ay, shouldering weights of pain,

We anchor in deep waters, safe from shore,

And hear submissive oer the stormy main

Gods chartered judgments walk for evermore.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning