Classic Poem

O God of love unbounded! Lord supreme!
In overwhelming grief to thee I fly.
Rending this veil of hateful calumny,
Oh, let thine arms of might my fame redeem!
Thou King of Kings, my fathers' God and mine,
Thou only art my sure and strong defence,
The polar snows, the tropic fires intense,
The shaded sea, the air, the light are thine;
The life of leaves, the water's changeful tide,
All things are thine, and by thy will abide.

Thou art all power; all life from thee goes forth,
And fails or flows obedient to thy breath;
Without thee all is nought; in endless death
All nature sinks forlorn and nothing worth
Yet even the Void obeys thee; and from nought
By thy dread word the living man was wrought.

Merciful God! How should I thee deceive?
Let thy eternal wisdom search my soul!
Bowed down to earth by falsehood's base control,
Her stainless wings not now the air may cleave.
Send forth thine hosts of truth and set her free!
Stay thou, O Lord, the oppressor's victory!

Forbid it, Lord, by that most free outpouring
Of thine own precious blood for every brother
Of our lost race, and by thy Holy Mother,
So full of grief, so loving, so adoring,
Who clothed in sorrow followed thee afar,
Weeping thy death like a declining star.

But if this lot thy love ordains to me,
To yield to foes most cruel and unjust,
To die and leave my poor and senseless dust
The scoff and sport of their weak enmity;
Speak thou, and then thy purposes fulfill;
Lord of my life, work thou thy perfect will.