Spencer Heath Archive

Item 1839

Penned verse by Heath. Might the “M” stand for Marie?

January 20, 1897

                To M _______

To my generous sympathetic friend

I would a worthy missive send,

If but the muse would give me power

To word my thoughts in this bright hour.

Could I but give them such a seemly dress

That they my truest self should then express;

In thee perchance my truest thoughts would find

The full accord of rarer finer mind.

And by enthusiasm’s quickening thrill and fire

Thou might’st some worthier thoughts, some works inspire.

Our noblest thoughts are ever fruitful seeds

That ripen sometimes into noble deeds:

But falling oft upon the barren way,

For want of warmth and sympathy, decay.

Though many a worthy deed unnoticed goes;

Still many a careless word unconscious flows

To meet a full response in other thought

And yield a little where before was naught.

Though many a worthy thought must be unknown

And run its solitary course alone

A larger work and nobler end

Oft ‘waits a sympathetic friend.