Lord, I repent, help mine impenitence:
Hide not Thy Face from me, nor spurn me hence,
Nor utterly despise me in my grief;
Nor say me nay, who worship with the thief
Bemoaning my so long lost innocence: —
Ah me! my penitence a fresh offence,
Too tardy and too tepid and too brief.
Lord, must I perish, I who look to Thee?
Look Thou upon me, bid me live, not die;
Say “Come,” say not “Depart,” tho’ Thou art just:
Yea, Lord, be mindful how out of the dust
I look to Thee while Thou dost look on me,
Thou Face to face with me and Eye to eye.
O LORD, ON WHOM WE GAZE AND DARE NOT GAZE
O Lord, on Whom we gaze and dare not gaze,
Increase our faith that gazing we may see,
And seeing love, and loving worship Thee
Thro’ all our days, our long and lengthening days.
O Lord, accessible to prayer and praise,
Kind Lord, Companion of the two or three,
Good Lord, be gracious to all men and me,
Lighten our darkness and amend our ways.
Call up our hearts to Thee, that where Thou art
Our treasure and our heart may dwell at one:
Then let the pallid moon pursue her sun,
So long as it shall please Thee, far apart, —
Yet art Thou with us, Thou to Whom we run,
We hand in hand with Thee and heart in heart.
I WILL COME AND HEAL HIM
O Lord God, hear the silence of each soul,
Its cry unutterable of ruth and shame,
Its voicelessness of self-contempt and blame:
Nor suffer harp and palm and aureole
Of multitudes who praise Thee at the goal,
To set aside Thy poor and blind and lame;
Nor blazing Seraphs utterly to outflame
The spark that flies up from each earthly coal.
My price Thy priceless Blood; and therefore I
Price of Thy priceless Blood am precious so
That good things love me in their love of Thee:
I comprehend not why Thou lovedst me
With Thy so mighty Love; but this I know,
No man hath greater love than thus to die.
AH LORD, LORD, IF MY HEART WERE RIGHT WITH THINE
Ah Lord, Lord, if my heart were right with Thine
As Thine with mine, then should I rest resigned
Awaiting knowledge with a quiet mind
Because of heavenly wisdom’s anodyne.
Then would Thy Love be more to me than wine,
Then should I seek being sure at length to find,
Then should I trust to Thee all humankind
Because Thy Love of them is more than mine.
Then should I stir up hope and comfort me
Remembering Thy Cradle and Thy Cross;
How Heaven to Thee without us had been loss,
How Heaven with us is Thy one only Heaven,
Heaven shared with us thro’ all eternity,
With us long sought, long loved, and much forgiven.
THE GOLD OF THAT LAND IS GOOD
I long for joy, O Lord, I long for gold,
I long for all Thou profferest to me,
I long for the unimagined manifold
Abundance laid up in Thy treasury.
I long for pearls, but not from mundane sea;
I long for palms, but not from earthly mould;
Yet in all else I long for, long for Thee,
Thyself to hear and worship and behold.
For Thee, beyond the splendour of that day
Where all is day and is not any night;
For Thee, beyond refreshment of that rest
To which tired saints press on for its delight: —
Or if not thus for Thee, yet Thee I pray
To make me long so till Thou make me blest.
WEIGH ALL MY FAULTS AND FOLLIES RIGHTEOUSLY
Weigh all my faults and follies righteously,
Omissions and commissions, sin on sin;
Make deep the scale, O Lord, to weigh them in;
Yea, set the Accuser vulture-eyed to see
All loads ingathered which belong to me:
That so in life the judgement may begin,
And Angels learn how hard it is to win
One solitary sinful soul to Thee.
I have no merits for a counterpoise:
Oh vanity my work and hastening day,
What can I answer to the accusing voice?
Lord, drop Thou in the counterscale alone
One Drop from Thine own Heart, and overweigh
My guilt, my folly, even my heart of stone.
LORD, GRANT ME GRACE TO LOVE THEE IN MY PAIN
Lord, grant me grace to love Thee in my pain,
Thro’ all my disappointment love Thee still,
Thy love my strong foundation and my hill,
Tho’ I be such as cometh not again,
A fading leaf, a spark upon the wane:
So evermore do Thou Thy perfect Will
Beloved thro’ all my good, thro’ all mine ill,
Beloved tho’ all my love beside be vain.
If thus I love Thee, how wilt Thou love me,
Thou Who art greater than my heart? (Amen!)
Wilt Thou bestow a part, withhold a part?
The longing of my heart cries out to Thee,
The hungering thirsting longing of my heart:
What I forewent wilt Thou not grant me then?
Lord, make me one with Thine own faithful ones,
Thy Saints who love Thee and are loved by Thee;
Till the day break and till the shadows flee,
At one with them in alms and orisons;
At one with him who toils and him who runs,
And him who yearns for union yet to be;
At one with all who throng the crystal sea
And wait the setting of our moons and suns.
Ah, my beloved ones gone on before,
Who looked not back with hand upon the plough!
If beautiful to me while still in sight,
How beautiful must be your aspects now;
Your unknown, well-known aspects in that light
Which clouds shall never cloud for evermore.
LIGHT OF LIGHT
O Christ our Light, Whom even in darkness we
(So we look up) discern and gaze upon,
O Christ, Thou loveliest Light that ever shone,
Thou Light of Light, Fount of all lights that be,
Grant us clear vision of Thy Light to see,
Tho’ other lights elude us, or begone
Into the secret of oblivion,
Or gleam in places higher than man’s degree.
Who looks on Thee looks full on his desire,
Who looks on Thee looks full on Very Love:
Looking, he answers well, What lack I yet?
His heat and cold wait not on earthly fire,
His wealth is not of earth to lose or get;
Earth reels, but he has stored his store above.
THE RANSOMED OF THE LORD
Thy lovely saints do bring Thee love,
Incense and joy and gold;
Fair star with star, fair dove with dove,
Beloved by Thee of old.
I, Master, neither star nor dove,
Have brought Thee sins and tears;
Yet I too bring a little love
Amid my flaws and fears.
A trembling love that faints and fails
Yet still is love of Thee,
A wondering Love that hopes and hails
Thy boundless Love of me;
Love kindling faith and pure desire,
Love following on to bliss,
A spark, O Jesu, from Thy fire,
A drop from Thine abyss.
LORD, WE
ARE RIVERS RUNNING TO THY SEA
Lord, we are rivers running to Thy sea,
Our waves and ripples all derived from Thee:
A nothing we should have, a nothing be,
Except for Thee.
Sweet are the waters of Thy shoreless sea,
Make sweet our waters that make haste to Thee;
Pour in Thy sweetness, that ourselves may be
Sweetness to Thee.
AN EXCEEDING BITTER CRY
Contempt and pangs and haunting fears —
Too late for hope, too late for ease,
Too late for rising from the dead;
Too late, too late to bend my knees,
Or bow my head,
Or weep, or ask for tears.
Hark! … One I hear Who calls to me:
”Give Me thy thorn and grief and scorn,
Give Me thy ruin and regret.
Press on thro’ darkness toward the morn:
One loves thee yet:
Have I forgotten thee?”
Lord, Who art Thou? Lord, is it Thou
My Lord and God Lord Jesus Christ?
How said I that I sat alone
And desolate and unsufficed?
Surely a stone
Would raise Thy praises now!
O LORD, WHEN THOU DIDST CALL ME, DIDST THOU KNOW
O Lord, when Thou didst call me, didst Thou know
My heart disheartened thro’ and thro’,
Still hankering after Egypt full in view
Where cucumbers and melons grow?
— Yea, I knew. —
But, Lord, when Thou didst choose me, didst Thou know
How marred I was and withered too,
Nor rose for sweetness nor for virtue rue,
Timid and rash, hasty and slow?
— ”Yea, I knew.” —
My Lord, when Thou didst love me, didst Thou know
How weak my efforts were, how few,
Tepid to love and impotent to do,
Envious to reap while slack to sow?
— ”Yea, I knew.” —
Good Lord, Who knowest what I cannot know
And dare not know, my false, my true,
My new, my old; Good Lord, arise and do
If loving Thou hast known me so.
— ”Yea, I knew.” —
THOU, GOD, SEEST ME
Ah me, that I should be
Exposed and open evermore to Thee! —
”Nay, shrink not from My light,
And I will make thee glorious in My sight
With the overcoming Shulamite.” —
Yea, Lord, Thou moulding me.
… Without a hiding-place
To hide me from the terrors of Thy Face. —
”Thy hiding-place is here
In Mine own heart, wherefore the Roman spear
For thy sake I accounted dear.” —
My Jesus! King of Grace.
… Without a veil, to give
Whiteness before Thy Face that I might live. —
”Am I too poor to dress
Thee in My royal robe of righteousness?
Challenge and prove My Love’s excess.” —
Give, Lord, I will receive.
… Without a pool wherein
To wash my piteous self and make me clean. —
”My Blood hath washed away
Thy guilt, and still I wash thee day by day:
Only take heed to trust and pray.” —
Lord, help me to begin.
LORD JESUS, WHO WOULD THINK THAT I AM THINE?
Lord Jesus, who would think that I am Thine?
Ah, who would think
Who sees me ready to turn back or sink,
That Thou art mine?
I cannot hold Thee fast tho’ Thou art mine:
Hold Thou me fast,
So earth shall know at last and heaven at last
That I am Thine.
THE NAME OF JESUS
Jesus, Lord God from all eternity,
Whom love of us brought down to shame,
I plead Thy life with Thee,
I plead Thy death, I plead Thy name.
Jesus, Lord God of every living soul,
Thy love exceeds its uttered fame,
Thy will can make us whole,
I plead Thyself. I plead Thy name.
LORD GOD OF HOSTS, MOST HOLY AND MOST HIGH
Lord God of Hosts, most Holy and most High,
What made Thee tell Thy Name of Love to me?
What made Thee live our life? what made Thee die ?
“My love of thee.”
I pitched so low, Thou so exceeding high,
What was it made Thee stoop to look at me
While flawless sons of God stood wondering by?
“My love of thee.”
What is there which can lift me up on high
That we may dwell together, Thou with me,
When sin and death and suffering are gone by?
“My love of thee.”
O Lord, what is that best thing hid on high
Which makes heaven heaven as Thou hast promised me,
Yea, makes it Christ to live and gain to die?
My love of thee.
LORD, WHAT HAVE I THAT I MAY OFFER THEE?
Lord, what have I that I may offer Thee?
Look, Lord, I pray Thee, and see. —
What is it thou hast got?
Nay, child, what is it thou hast not?
Thou hast all gifts that I have given to thee:
Offer them all to Me,
The great ones and the small;
I will accept them one and all. —
I have a will, good Lord, but it is marred;
A heart both crushed and hard:
Not such as these the gift
Clean-handed lovely saints uplift. —
Nay, child, but wilt thou judge for Me?
I crave not thine, but thee.
Ah Lord Who lovest me!
Such as I have now give I Thee.
IF I SHOULD SAY “MY HEART IS IN MY HOME
If I should say “my heart is in my home,”
I turn away from that high halidom
Where Jesus sits: for nowhere else
But with its treasure dwells
The heart: this Truth and this experience tells.
If I should say “my heart is in a grave,”
I turn away from Jesus risen to save:
I slight that death He died for me;
I too deny to see
His beauty and desirability.
O Lord, Whose Heart is deeper than my heart,
Draw mine to Thine to worship where Thou art;
For Thine own glory join the twain
Never to part again,
Nor to have lived nor to have died in vain.
LEAF FROM LEAF CHRIST KNOWS
Leaf from leaf Christ knows;
Himself the Lily and the Rose:
Sheep from sheep Christ tells;
Himself the Shepherd, no one else:
Star and star He names,
Himself outblazing all their flames:
Dove by dove, He calls
To set each on the golden walls:
Drop by drop, He counts
The flood of ocean as it mounts:
Grain by grain, His hand
Numbers the innumerable sand.
Lord, I lift to Thee
In peace what is and what shall be:
Lord, in peace I trust
To Thee all spirits and all dust.
LORD, CARRY ME. — NAY, BUT I GRANT THEE STRENGTH
Lord, carry me. — Nay, but I grant thee strength
To walk and work thy way to Heaven at length. —
Lord, why then am I weak? — Because I give
Power to the weak, and bid the dying live. —
Lord, I am tired. — He hath not much desired
The goal, who at the starting-point is tired. —
&nb
sp; Lord, dost Thou know? — I know what is in man;
What the flesh can, and what the spirit can. —
Lord, dost Thou care? — Yea, for thy gain or loss
So much I cared, it brought Me to the Cross. —
Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief. —
Good is the word; but rise, for life is brief.
The follower is not greater than the Chief:
Follow thou Me along My way of grief.
LORD, I AM HERE. — BUT, CHILD, I LOOK FOR THEE
Lord, I am here. — But, child, I look for thee
Elsewhere and nearer Me. —
Lord, that way moans a wide insatiate sea:
How can I come to Thee? —
Set foot upon the water, test and see
If thou canst come to Me. —
Couldst Thou not send a boat to carry me,
Or dolphin swimming free? —
Nay, boat nor fish if thy will faileth thee:
For My Will too is free. —
O Lord, I am afraid. — Take hold on Me:
I am stronger than the sea. —
Save, Lord, I perish. — I have hold of thee,
I made and rule the sea,
I bring thee to the haven where thou wouldst be.
NEW CREATURES; THE CREATOR STILL THE SAME
New creatures; the Creator still the Same
For ever and for ever: therefore we
Win hope from God’s unsearchable decree
And glorify His still unchanging Name.
We too are still the same: and still our claim,
Our trust, our stay, is Jesus, none but He:
Delphi Complete Poetical Works of Christina Rossetti Page 34