Help

DREAM not, O Soul, that easy is the task

Thus set before thee. If it proves at length,

As well it may, beyond thy natural strength,

Faint not, despair not. As a child may ask

A father, pray the Everlasting Good

For light and guidance midst the subtle snares

Of sin thick planted in life’s thoroughfares,

For spiritual strength and moral hardihood;

Still listening, through the noise of time and sense,

To the still whisper of the Inward Word;

Bitter in blame, sweet in approval heard,

Itself its own confirming evidence:

To health of soul a voice to cheer and please,

To guilt the wrath of the Eumenides.

1881.