Susan Coolidge

“ How they would shrink from us and pale with fear!"
The bitter thoughts we hold in leash within
But do not kill;
The petty anger and the mean desire,
The jealousy which burns — a smouldering fire —
The slimy trail of half-unnoted sin,
The sordid wish which daunts the nobler will.
We fight each day with foes we dare not name.
We fight, we fail
Noiseless the conflict and unseen of men;
We rise, are beaten down, and rise again,
And all the time we smile, we move, the same,
And even to dearest eyes draw close the veil. ”