Because I ever have gone down Thy ways With joyous heart and undivided praise, I pray Thee, Lord, of Thy great loving-kindness, Thou'lt make to-day even as my yesterdays!”
( At the edge of the yellow dawn I saw them stand, Body and Soul; and they were hand-in-hand: The Soul looked backward where the last night's blindness Lay still upon the unawakened land;
But the Body, in the sun's light well arrayed, Fronted the east, grandly and unafraid: I knew that it was one might never falter Although the Soul seemed shaken as it prayed. )
“O Lord” ( the Soul said ), “I would ask one thing: Send out Thy rapid messengers to bring Me to the shadows which about Thine altar Are ever born and always gathering.
“For I am weary now, and would lie dead Where I may not behold my old days shed Like withered leaves around me and above me; Hear me, O Lord, and I am comforted!”
“O Lord, because I ever deemed Thee kind” ( The Body's words were borne in on the wind ); “Because I knew that Thou wouldst ever love me Although I sin, and lead me who am blind;
Because of all these things, hear me who pray! Lord, grant me of Thy bounty one more day To worship Thee, and thank Thee I am living. Yet if Thou callest now, I will obey.”
( The Body's hand tightly the Soul did hold; And over them both was shed the sun's red gold; And though I knew this day had in its giving Unnumbered wrongs and sorrows manifold,
I counted it a sad and bitter thing That this weak, drifting Soul must alway cling Unto this Body — wrought in such a fashion It must have set the gods, even, marvelling.
And, thinking so, I heard the Soul's loud cries, As it turned round and saw the eastern skies ) “O Lord, destroy in me this new-born passion For this that has grown perfect in mine eyes!
“O Lord, let me not see this thing is fair, This Body Thou hast given me to wear,— Lest I fall out of love with death and dying, And deem the old, strange life not hard to bear!
“Yea, now, even now, I love this Body so — O Lord, on me Thy longest days bestow! O Lord, forget the words I have been crying, And lead me where Thou thinkest I should go!”
( At the edge of the open dawn I saw them stand, Body and Soul, together, hand-in-hand, Fulfilled, as I, with strong desire and wonder As they beheld the glorious eastern land;
I saw them, in the strong light of the sun, Go down into the day that had begun; I knew, as they, that night might never sunder This Body from the Soul that it had won. )
Cookies on Poetry Cove