"O Dreary life!" we cry, "O dreary life!"
And still the generations of the birds
Sing through our sighing, and the flocks and herds
Serenely live while we are keeping strife
With Heaven's true purpose in us, as a knife
Against which we may struggle. Ocean girds
Unslackened the dry land: savannah-swards
Unweary sweep: hills watch, unworn; and rife
Meek leaves drop yearly from the forest-trees,
To show, above, the unwasted stars that pass
In their old glory. O thou God of old!
Grant me some smaller grace than comes to these;-
But so much patience, as a blade of grass
Grows by contended through the heat and cold.

About this poem
"Patience Taught By Nature" was published in Elizabeth Barrett Browning's book "A Drama of Exile: And Other Poems" (H. G. Langley, 1845).

About Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Elizabeth Barrett Browning was born in 1806 at Coxhoe Hall, Durham, England. Her books include "An Essay on Mind and Other Poems" (1826), "The Seraphim and Other Poems" (1838) and "Poems before Congress" (1860). Browning died on June 29, 1861, in Florence, Italy.

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This poem is in the public domain. Distributed by King Features Syndicate