Patience at first is bitter; but at length
Its fruit is sweet. It gives us heart’s content.
Then he aloud: “A gift from God thou’rt come,
The proverb’s pith: ‘By patience overcome.’65
This meeting’s the reward of all my prayer;
Thou’lt solve the riddle of my dark despair.
Th’ expounder, thou, of all my soul’s desires,
Thou’lt extricate me from despond’s deep mires.
Be welcome, then; a very friend in need;
Hadst thou delayed, my case were sad indeed.