Page:The Poems and Prose remains of Arthur Hugh Clough, volume 2 (1869).djvu/101



Source of all our light and life, Whom as our truth, our strength, we see and feel, But whom the hours of mortal moral strife Alone aright reveal!

Mine inmost soul, before Thee inly brought, Thy presence owns ineffable, divine; Chastised each rebel self-encentered thought, My will adoreth Thine.

With eye down-dropt, if then this earthly mind Speechless remain, or speechless e'en depart; Nor seek to see—for what of earthly kind Can see Thee as Thou art?—

If well-assured 'tis but profanely bold In thought's abstractest forms to seem to see, It dare not dare the dread communion hold In ways unworthy Thee,

O not unowned, thou shalt unnamed forgive, In worldly walks the prayerless heart prepare; And if in work its life it seem to live, Shalt make that work be prayer.

Nor times shall lack, when while the work it plies, Unsummoned powers the blinding film shall part, And scarce by happy tears made dim, the eyes In recognition start.

But, as thou wiliest, give or e'en forbear The beatific supersensual sight, So, with Thy blessing blest, that humbler prayer Approach Thee morn and night.