The first line of “William of Thierry” by David Lyle Jeffrey which appears in the November 2026 issue of First Things is:
Where love and understanding join, hearts are tranquil,
And I cannot help but think of Frost’s Two Tramps in Mud Time” which ends:
Only where love and need are one,
And the work is play for mortal stakes,
Is the deed ever really done
For Heaven and the future’s sakes.
I looked to see if the first line came from a quote by the Cistercian monk about whom Jeffrey writes to which Frost also might be alluding, but apparently not. Perhaps Jeffrey is alluding to the Frost obliquely instead.
I know of the latter because of the Robert B. Parker book Mortal Stakes. I subscribe to First Things because Elizabeth Scalia, the Anchoress, used to write for them; however, she has not for a long time, and she’s not even blogging much these days. I hope she is well.
