Sweet is the pleasure…

By John Sullivan Dwight

Sweet is the pleasure,
Itself cannot spoil!
Is not true leisure
One with true toil?

Thou that wouldst taste it,
Still do thy best;
Use it, not waste it,
Else ’t is no rest.

Wouldst behold beauty
Near thee? all round?
Only hath duty
Such a sight found.

Rest is not quitting
The busy career;
Rest is the fitting
Of self to its sphere.

’T is the brook’s motion,
Clear without strife,
Fleeing to ocean
After its life.

Deeper devotion
Nowhere hath knelt;
Fuller emotion
Heart never felt.

’T is loving and serving
The Highest and Best!
’T is Onwards! unswerving,
And that is true rest.


Source: The Dial (July 1840) p. 22

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