Some day the soft Ideal that we wooed confronts us fiercely, foe-beset, pursued, and cries reproachful: Was it then my praise, and not myself was loved? Prove now thy truth; I claim of thee the promise of thy youth.
James Russell Lowell (1871). “The poetical works of James Russell Lowell”, p.431
![Some day the soft Ideal that we wooed confronts us fiercely, foe-beset, pursued, and cries reproachful: Was it then my praise, and not myself was loved? Prove now thy truth; I claim of thee the promise of thy youth.](http://cdn.quoteddaily.com/images/james-russell-lowell/some-day-the-soft-ideal-that-we-wooed-confronts-us-fiercely-foe-beset-pursued-and-cries-reproachful-was-it-then.jpg)