“For a cap and bells our lives we pay,
Bubbles we earn with a whole soul's tasking:
'Tis heaven alone that is given away,
'Tis only God may be had for the asking.”

—  James Russell Lowell

Prelude to Pt. I, st. 4
The Vision of Sir Launfal (1848)

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James Russell Lowell175
American poet, critic, editor, and diplomat 1819–1891

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