Classic Poem

Candor may be devilish,
And truth untimely open hell:
Better pretend the thing you wish;
Anon you may, if you wish and wish,
Achieve a miracle.

Once an ugly truth I saw,
And I hid it with a lie:
Cunning, for I knew the law,
I covered it, and smothered it,
And killed it with a lie:
No man there was that knew of it,
And many days went by.

Lo, something fair hath risen like
A lily from the sod!
And the lie is now the truth of it,
Become the splendid truth of it —
Glory be to God!