CONFIDENCE

The faintness of my heart

When strife and evil rose,

The worse and lesser part

Which it for ever chose,

God knows.

The passions that have bound

My soul with chains of earth,

The sorrows that have found

Their home with me since birth,

The dearth

Of all these nobler things

That make existence fair,

The stain of sin that clings

Until we cease to care

For prayer,

All this must I atone:

And though eternal woes

My banished soul alone,

Must bear without repose,

Yet I am not afraid

To know God knows.