This is your hour, Gates of God,
Your solemn hour, bars of gold,
But there shall come another yet.
Like silken sails you shall be furled,
Like melting mist you shall be set.
Oh, ye the dearest! vanished from
Love's little inner, sheltered spot.
To ye I whisper; not forgot,
But loved the dearer, namèd not.
Across the barrier old as life,
Lean to us from the Silent World.
A PRAYER.
VESPERS.
Great God!
Behold, I lie
Beneath Thine awful eye,
As the sea beneath the sky.
My God,
What hope abides?
Thine unknown purpose rides
The torrent of my tides.
Dear God,
I am not a shore, or hill,
An ocean must take still
The colors of the heavens' will.
Choose, God.
Though days be blue, or gold,
Though sorrows new, or cold,
Though purple joy be there,
Or gray of old despair,
Give but Thyself to me,
And let me be Thy sea.
Thy storms have had their way.
I pray now not to pray.