“He came early in the morning.
He thought they needed comfort
Which they did
And he gave them an assurance
That it would be all as well
As indeed were it
Not to have it needed at any time”

(Gertrude Stein, from Stanzas in Meditation, quoted in John Ashbery’s “The Impossible: Gertrude Stein,” p. 12 in his Selected Prose.)