OH God, if I have ever been So filled with ignorance and sin That I have dared to use Thy name In blasphemy, in jest, in shame; If ever I have dared to flout Thy works, and mock Thy deeds with doubt, Thou must forgive me as Thou art divine For, God, the fault was Thine as well as mine. Oh, I have used Thee, time on time, To fill a phrase, to round a rhyme; But was this wrong? Nay, in Thy heart Thou knowest the noble theme Thou art... Was it my fault that as I sung The daring speech was on my tongue? Nay; if my singing, God, gave Thee offense, Thou wouldst have robbed me of the lyric sense. But dignity hath made Thee dumb, And so Thou biddest me to come And be a sonant part of Thee; To sing Thy praise in blasphemy, To be the life within the clod That points the paradox of God. To chant, beneath a loud and lyric grief, A faith that flaunts its very disbelief. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...CAROL: NEW STYLE by STEPHEN VINCENT BENET WHEN THE SPEED COMES by ROBERT FROST SOLDIER by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON JONES'S PRIVATE ARGYMENT by SIDNEY LANIER ON A PALMETTO by SIDNEY LANIER ON VIOLET'S WAFERS, SENT ME WHEN I WAS ILL by SIDNEY LANIER |