Questionings

LAUGHTER and Silence for a sword and shield!
O aching heart, what war is this you wage ?
What part have you upon this furious field
Where mailed pride and reckless folly rage ?
Though skilled your fencing in the mimic strife,
What is its triumph but a shallow race ?
What can it stead you in the lists of life
Where Envy levels at a smiling face ?
Is there no answer ? Then, if Hope abide,
Let still your shield be guard to Peace or Pain;
Kept virgin from the blazonry of pride—
Free from heraldic boast or earthly stain—
And haply when this shadowed coil is done
Its field will mirror the victorious sun.