I
O Life! O Death; O God!
Have we not striven?
Have we not known Thee, God,
As Thy stars know Heaven?
Have we not held Thee true,
True as Thy deepest,
Sweet and immaculate blue
Heaven whence rains Thy dew!
Have we not known Thee true,
O God who keepest!
II
O God, our Father, God!—
Who gav’st us fire,
To rise above the sod,
To soar, aspire—
What though we strive and strive,
And all our soul says “live”?
Will not the scorn of men,
Like some wild bird, again
Falcon it down with sneers,
As often in past years?
And, O sun-centered high,
Thou, too, who ’rt Poet,
Beneath Thy seeing sky
Each day new Keatses die,
Crying, “Why should we try!
That which we seek ’s a lie!”—
Why is this so?—O why?—
Thou who dost know it!
III
We know Thee beautiful,
We know Thee bitter!
Help Thou!—Men’s eyes are dull,
O God most beautiful!
Make Thou their souls less full
Of things mere glitter.
Dost Thou not see our tears?
Dost Thou not hear the years
Treading our hearts to shards,
O Lord of all the Lords?—
Give heed, O God of Hosts,
There ’mid Thy glorious ghosts,
Most high and holy!
Have mercy on our tears!
Have mercy on our years!
Our strivings and our fears,
O Lord of lordly peers,
On us, so lowly!
IV
On us, so fondly fain
To tell what mother-pain
Of Nature haunts the rain.
On us, so glad to show
What sorrow wings the snow,
And her wild winds that blow.
Us, who interpret right
Her mystic rose of light,
Her moony rune of night.