• Not in the time of pleasure
  Hope doth set her bow;
  But in the sky of sorrow,
  Over the vale of woe.
  
  Through gloom and shadow look we
  On beyond the years!
  The soul would have no rainbow
  Had the eyes no tears.
  • The Century Vol. 44, Issue 4 (August 1892)
  • I have encountered a variant of this in my searches of the internet, but I do not know it's original source:
    We look through gloom and storm-drift
      Beyond the years:
        The soul would have no rainbow
          Had the eyes no tears.
    There is also a book The Soul Would Have No Rainbow If The Eyes Had No Tears by Guy A. Zona where this statement is listed as a Minquass proverb. Whether the statement originated as an American Indian proverb, or in this poem by Cheney, I do not know. Good proverbs have a way of spreading in many ways, and their origins are often obscured. -KK

The Happiest Heart