Elizabeth Mary Little

Life

Ah, Life! that mystery that no man knows,

And all men ask, the Arab from his sands,

The Caesar's self, lifting imperial hands,

And the lone dweller where the lotus blows;

O'er trackless tropics and o'er silent snows

She dumbly broods, that Sphinx of all the lands,

And if she answers no man understands,

And no cry breaks the blank of her repose.

But a new form dawned once upon my pain,

With grave sad lips, yet in the eyes a smile

Of deepest meaning dawning sweet and slow,

Lighting to service, and no more in vain

I ask of Life, "What art thou?" as erewhile,

For since Love holds my hand I seem to know.