The Martyr

“Deem not the just by Heaven forgot! Though life its common gifts deny,— Though, with a crushed and bleeding heart, And spurned of man, he goes to die! For God hath marked each sorrowing day, And numbered every bitter tear, And heaven’s long years of bliss shall pay For all his children suffer here.” BRYANT.[1]

[1] This poem does not appear in the collected works of William Cullen Bryant, nor in the collected poems of his brother, John Howard Bryant. It was probably copied from a newspaper or magazine.

The longest way must have its close,—the gloomiest night will wear