My Virtual Reading Room

Pain

Were pain more difficult to give,
And easier to cure,
Then happier all men would live--
With less they must endure.

But oh, the careless word can smite
A blow no scar reveals,
And man can cause by just a slight
A wound which never heals.

Devotion naught can separate
Is difficult to gain,
So swiftly grow the seeds of hate
And bitterness and pain.

And one with but a scornful glance
Can change a friend to foe,
And not recall the circumstance
Wherein he dealt the blow.

How strange a world, where frown and word
To hurt and maim are sure,
And pain, so easily incurred,
Remains so hard to cure!

(Edgar A. Guest)