Recompense

To Beauty and to Truth I heaped
My sacrificial fires.
I fed them hot with selfish thoughts
And many proud desires.

I stripped my days of dear delights
To cast them in the flame,
Till life seemed naked as a rock.
And pleasure but a name.

And still I sorrowed patiently,
And waited day and night.
Expecting Truth from very far,
And Beauty from her height.

Then laughter ran among the stars ;
And suddenly I felt
That at my threshold stood the shrine
Where Truth and Beauty dwelt.