Doubt

     They bade me cast the thing away,
They pointed to my hands all bleeding,
They listened not to all my pleading;
     The thing I meant I could not say;
     I knew that I should rue the day
     If once I cast that thing away.

     I grasped it firm, and bore the pain;
The thorny husks I stripped and scattered;
If I could reach its heart, what mattered
     If other men saw not my gain,
     Or even if I should be slain?
     I knew the risks; I chose the pain.

     O, had I cast that thing away,
I had not found what most I cherish,
A faith without which I should perish,--
     The faith which, like a kernel, lay
     Hid in the husks which on that day
     My instinct would not throw away!

Helen Hunt Jackson