By Reason Of Thy Law

Here I make oath--Although the heart that knows its

Hear loath,

And credit less--That he who kens to meet Pain's kisses

Which hiss against his tears,

Dread, loss, nor love frustrate,

Nor all iniquity of the froward

Shall his inur-ed wing make idly bate,

Nor of the appointed quarry his staunch

To lose observance quite;

Seal from half-sad and

Sagacious

Ultimate Paradise;

Nor shake his certitude of haughty fate.

Pacing the burning shares of many dooms,

I with stern tread do the clear-witting

To judgment cite,

If I have borne

The proving of their pure-willed ordeal.

From food of all

The heavenly Falconer my heart debars,

And tames with fearful

The haggard to His call;

Yet sometimes comes a hand, sometimes a voice withal,

And she sits meek now, and expects the light.

In this Avernian sky,

This sultry and incumbent

Of dull and doomed regret;

Where on the unseen verges yet,

O yet,

At intervals,

Trembles, and falls,

Faint lightning of remembered transient sweet--Ah, far too

But to be sweet a little, a little sweet, and fleet;

Leaving this pallid trace,

This loitering and most fitful light a space,

Still some sad space,

For Grief to see her own poor face:-Here where I keep my

With all o'er-anguished feet,

And no live comfort near on any hand;

Lo,

I proclaim the unavoided term,

When this morass of tears, then drained and firm,

Shall be a land--Unshaken I affirm--Where seven-quired psalterings meet;

And all the gods move with calm hand in hand,

And eyes that know not trouble and the worm.