Henry Charles Beeching, ed. (1859–1919). Lyra Sacra: A Book of Religious Verse. 1903.
By Thomas Toke Lynch (18181871)Inconstancy
OH, were I ever what I am sometimes, | |
And never more what I sometimes have been; | |
For oft my spirit, singing as it climbs, | |
Can make of winter bleak a summer green: | |
And yet sometimes, and in the sunniest weather, | 5 |
My work and I have fallen out together. | |
Now earth seems drossy, heaven the land of gold, | |
Anon heaven fabulous, substantial earth; | |
And sometimes in my God I can be bold, | |
And say, “What hopes are mine in right of birth?” | 10 |
And yet sometimes at former faith I wonder, | |
And fears I once defied I now sink under. | |
Lord, rid me of this natural waywardness, | |
Unworthy one who is a child of thine; | |
Calm let me be when rudest winds distress, | 15 |
Nor lose occasion if the day be fine; | |
But faithful to the light of sacred reason, | |
One heart be mine in every changing season. | |