Page:Ambarvalia - Clough (1849).djvu/58

 The food without us, and within The strength that makes it nutritive: He bids the dry bones rise and live, And e'en in hearts depraved to sin Some sudden, gracious influence, May give the long-lost good again, And wake within the dormant sense And love of good;—for mortal men, So but thou strive, thou soon shalt see Defeat itself is victory.

So be it: yet, O Good and Great, In whom in this bedarkened state I fain am struggling to believe, Let me not ever cease to grieve, Nor lose the consciousness of ill Within me;—and refusing still To recognise in things around What cannot truly there be found, Let me not feel, nor be it true, That while each daily task I do I still am giving day by day My precious things within away, (Those thou didst give to keep as thine) And casting, do whate'er I may, My heavenly pearls to earthly swine.