God answers sharp and sudden on some prayers,
And thrusts the thing we have prayed for in our face,
A gauntlet with a gift in 't.
-- Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1809-1861)
-- Aurora Leigh, Book ii
Related:
The growing drama has outgrown such toys
Of simulated stature, face, and speech
It also peradventure may outgrow
The simulation of the painted scene,
Boards, actors, prompters, gaslight, and costume,
And take for a worthier stage the soul itself,
Its shifting fancies and celestial lights,
With all its grand orchestral silences
To keep the pauses of its rhythmic sounds....
