Sufferance

Convictions come with time that like a bow
Is broken into ribboned arcs of blues,
And golds, and reds; outwardly to diffuse
A milder, sober violet; just so
Refracted thought of years is prone to throw
Upon the feeble acts of men the hues
Of charity, and, kindly bent, our views
In riper days, a worthy sufferance show.

Forbearance stays the lash of censure's thong,
And pity rounds the angles sin has made.
Convictions such as these in youth may come,
But born of age to tempered days belong
Approving not the mire where folly strayed,
Resuscitates whom sentence would benumb.

Kansas Poets
Edited by May William Ward
(New York: Henry Harrison. 1935)
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