Reward for Valor

... Untwine me from the massOf deeds which make up life, one deedPower shall fall short in or exceed!—Pippa Passes.

“It comes from the sea's great heart of blue,And winning a warmer, purple hue,In eddies prismatic its colors whirl,From brown to amber, and then to pearl.Till it finally ends in a thin line of spray—Is wrecked into nothing, and floated away.

“And the color changes, to one who passed,Seemed changes like Life's sea—surges vast.Surges that foam from the deep to the spray—And then on the Great Sands are floated away.”