Written by
Thomas Hardy |
I
"Percussus sum sicut foenum, et aruit cor meum.
"
- Ps.
ci
Wintertime nighs;
But my bereavement-pain
It cannot bring again:
Twice no one dies.
Flower-petals flee;
But, since it once hath been,
No more that severing scene
Can harrow me.
Birds faint in dread:
I shall not lose old strength
In the lone frost's black length:
Strength long since fled!
Leaves freeze to dun;
But friends can not turn cold
This season as of old
For him with none.
Tempests may scath;
But love can not make smart
Again this year his heart
Who no heart hath.
Black is night's cope;
But death will not appal
One who, past doubtings all,
Waits in unhope.
De Profundis
II
"Considerabam ad dexteram, et videbam; et non erat qui cognosceret me
When the clouds' swoln bosoms echo back the shouts of the many and
strong
That things are all as they best may be, save a few to be right ere
long,
And my eyes have not the vision in them to discern what to these is
so clear,
The blot seems straightway in me alone; one better he were not here.
The stout upstanders say, All's well with us: ruers have nought to
rue!
And what the potent say so oft, can it fail to be somewhat true?
Breezily go they, breezily come; their dust smokes around their
career,
Till I think I am one horn out of due time, who has no calling here.
Their dawns bring lusty joys, it seems; their eves exultance sweet;
Our times are blessed times, they cry: Life shapes it as is most
meet,
And nothing is much the matter; there are many smiles to a tear;
Then what is the matter is I, I say.
Why should such an one be here?
Let him to whose ears the low-voiced Best seems stilled by the clash
of the First,
Who holds that if way to the Better there be, it exacts a full look
at the Worst,
Who feels that delight is a delicate growth cramped by crookedness,
custom, and fear,
Get him up and be gone as one shaped awry; he disturbs the order
here.
De Profundis
III
"Heu mihi, quia incolatus meus prolongatus est! Habitavi cum
habitantibus Cedar; multum incola fuit aninia mea.
"--Ps.
cxix.
There have been times when I well might have passed and the ending
have come -
Points in my path when the dark might have stolen on me, artless,
unrueing -
Ere I had learnt that the world was a welter of futile doing:
Such had been times when I well might have passed, and the ending
have come!
Say, on the noon when the half-sunny hours told that April was nigh,
And I upgathered and cast forth the snow from the crocus-border,
Fashioned and furbished the soil into a summer-seeming order,
Glowing in gladsome faith that I quickened the year thereby.
Or on that loneliest of eves when afar and benighted we stood,
She who upheld me and I, in the midmost of Egdon together,
Confident I in her watching and ward through the blackening heather,
Deeming her matchless in might and with measureless scope endued.
Or on that winter-wild night when, reclined by the chimney-nook
quoin,
Slowly a drowse overgat me, the smallest and feeblest of folk there,
Weak from my baptism of pain; when at times and anon I awoke there -
Heard of a world wheeling on, with no listing or longing to join.
Even then! while unweeting that vision could vex or that knowledge
could numb,
That sweets to the mouth in the belly are bitter, and tart, and
untoward,
Then, on some dim-coloured scene should my briefly raised curtain
have lowered,
Then might the Voice that is law have said "Cease!" and the ending
have come.
|
Written by
The Bible |
“Do not enter into judgment with your servant;
For before you no one alive can be righteous.
”—Ps.
143:2.
“O Jehovah, do not in your indignation reprove me,
Nor in your rage correct me.
For your own arrows have sunk themselves deep into me,
And upon me your hand is come down.
There is no sound spot in my flesh because of your denunciation.
There is no peace in my bones on account of my sin.
For my own errors have passed over my head;
Like a heavy load they are too heavy for me.
My wounds have become stinky, they have festered,
Because of my foolishness.
I have become disconcerted, I have bowed low to an extreme degree;
All day long I have walked about sad.
”—Ps.
38:1-6.
“Look! With error I was brought forth with birth pains,
And in sin my mother conceived me.
”
“May you purify me from sin with hyssop, that I may be clean;
May you wash me, that I may become whiter even than snow.
”
“Conceal your face from my sins,
And wipe out even all my errors.
”—Ps.
51:5, 7, 9.
“Happy is the one whose revolt is pardoned, whose sin is covered.
Happy is the man to whose account Jehovah does not put error,
And in whose spirit there is no deceit.
.
.
.
My sin I finally confessed to you, and my error I did not cover.
I said: ‘I shall make confession over my transgressions to Jehovah.
’
And you yourself pardoned the error of my sins.
”—Ps.
32:1-5.
|
Written by
The Bible |
“As a father shows mercy to his sons,
Jehovah has shown mercy to those fearing him.
For he himself well knows the formation of us,
Remembering that we are dust.
”—Ps.
103:13, 14.
“If errors were what you watch, O Jah,
O Jehovah, who could stand?
For there is the true forgiveness with you,
In order that you may be feared.
I have hoped, O Jehovah, my soul has hoped,
And for his word I have waited.
”—Ps.
130:3-5.
|
Written by
The Bible |
“O Jehovah, you yourself have proved to be a real dwelling for us
During generation after generation.
Before the mountains themselves were born,
Or you proceeded to bring forth as with labor pains the earth and the productive land,
Even from time indefinite to time indefinite you are
God.
.
.
.
For a thousand years are in your eyes but as yesterday when it is past,
And as a watch during the night.
”—Ps.
90:1-4.
“Long ago you laid the foundations of the earth itself,
And the heavens are the work of your hands.
They themselves will perish, but you yourself will keep standing;
And just like a garment they will all of them wear out.
Just like clothing you will replace them, and they will finish their turn.
But you are the same, and your own years will not be completed.
”—Ps.
102:25-27.
“Clouds and thick gloom are all around him; Righteousness and judgment are the established place of his throne.
Before him a very fire goes,
And it consumes his adversaries all around.
His lightnings lighted up the productive land;
The earth saw and came to be in severe pains.
The mountains themselves proceeded to melt just like wax on account of Jehovah,
On account of the Lord of the whole earth.
”—Ps.
97:2-5.
|
Written by
The Bible |
“The law of Jehovah is perfect, bringing back the soul.
The reminder of Jehovah is trustworthy, making the inexperienced one wise.
”—Ps.
19:7.
|
Written by
The Bible |
“Blessed be Jehovah, who daily carries the load for us,
The true God of our salvation.
Selah.
The true God is for us a God of saving acts;
And to Jehovah the Sovereign Lord belong the ways out from death.
”—Ps.
68:19, 20.
“Whom do I have in the heavens?
And besides you I do have no other delight on the earth.
My organism and my heart have failed.
God is the rock of my heart and my share to time indefinite.
For, look! the very ones keeping away from you will perish.
You will certainly silence every one immorally leaving you.
But as for me, the drawing near to God is good for me.
In the Sovereign Lord Jehovah I have placed my refuge,
To declare all your works.
”—Ps.
73:25-28.
“In God I have put my trust.
I shall not be afraid.
What can earthling man do to me?”—Ps.
56:11.
“For this God is our God to time indefinite, even forever.
He himself will guide us until we die.
”—Ps.
48:14.
|
Written by
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow |
Ye voices, that arose
After the Evening's close,
And whispered to my restless heart repose!
Go, breathe it in the ear
Of all who doubt and fear,
And say to them, "Be of good cheer!"
Ye sounds, so low and calm,
That in the groves of balm
Seemed to me like an angel's psalm!
Go, mingle yet once more
With the perpetual roar
Of the pine forest dark and hoar!
Tongues of the dead, not lost
But speaking from deaths frost,
Like fiery tongues at Pentecost!
Glimmer, as funeral lamps,
Amid the chills and darn ps
Of the vast plain where Death encamps!
|
Written by
Isaac Watts |
Sincerity and hypocrisy; or, formality in worship.
John 4:24; Ps.
139:23,24.
God is a Spirit, just and wise,
He sees our inmost mind;
In vain to heav'n we raise our cries,
And leave our souls behind.
Nothing but truth before his throne
With honor can appear;
The painted hypocrites are known
Through the disguise they wear.
Their lifted eyes salute the skies,
Their bending knees the ground;
But God abhors the sacrifice,
Where not the heart is found.
Lord, search my thoughts, and try my ways,
And make my soul sincere
Then shall I stand before thy face,
And find acceptance there.
|
Written by
The Bible |
“The wicked one is borrowing and does not pay back,
But the righteous one is showing favor and is making gifts.
”—Ps.
37:21.
|
Written by
Robert William Service |
Where once with lads I scoffed my beer
The landlord's lass I've wed.
Now I am lord and master here;--
Thank God! the old man's dead.
I stand behind a blooming bar
With belly like a tub,
And pals say, seeing my cigar:
'Bill's wed a pub.
'
I wonder now if I did well,
My freedom for to lose;
Knowing my wife is fly as hell
I mind my 'Ps' and 'Qs'.
Oh what a fuss she made because
I tweaked the barmaid's bub:
Alas! a sorry day it was
I wed a pub.
Fat landlord of the Golden Pig,
They call me 'mister' now;
And many a mug of beer I swig,
Yet don't get gay, somehow.
So farmer fellows, lean and clean
Who sweat to earn your grub,
Although you haven't got a bean:
Don't wed a pub.
|