HYMN BEFORE ACTION THE earth is full of anger, The seas are dark with wrath, High lust and froward bearing, Proud heart, rebellious brow Deaf ear and soul uncaring, We seek Thy mercy now! The sinner that forswore Thee, The fool that passed Thee by, Our times are known before TheeLord, grant us strength to die! For those who kneel beside us Lord, let their faith atone. If wrong we did to call them, By honour bound they came; Let not Thy Wrath befall them, But deal to us the blame. From panic, pride, and terror, Cloak Thou our undeserving, In silence and unswerving Ah, Mary pierced with sorrow, E'en now their vanguard gathers, In life, in death made clear- Lord God of Battles, hear! TO THE TRUE ROMANCE1 Thy face is far from this our war, I shall not find Thee quick and kind, And touch Thy garments' hem: Through wantonness if men profess While we adore discover more Thee perfect, wise, and just. Since spoken word Man's Spirit stirred Beyond his belly-need, What is is Thine of fair design In thought and craft and deed; 1 Copyright, 1893, by D. Appleton & Co. Each stroke aright of toil and fight, And hope too high, wherefore we die, Who holds by Thee hath Heaven in fee And knowledge sure that he endure For to make plain that man's disdain Is but new Beauty's birth For to possess in loneliness The joy of all the earth. As Thou didst teach all lovers speech So shalt Thou rule by every school Who wast or yet the Lights were set, A whisper in the Void, Who shalt be sung through planets young When this is clean destroyed. Beyond the bounds our staring rounds, The children wise of outer skies Look hitherward and mark A light that shifts, a glare that drifts, Not all forlorn, for Thou hast borne Time hath no tide but must abide Tide hath no time, for to Thy rhyme Oh 'twas certes at Thy decrees We fashioned Heaven and Hell! Pure Wisdom hath no certain path Thou art the Voice to kingly boys A veil to draw 'twixt God His Law A shadow kind to dumb and blind Too base of leaguing odds- O Charity, all patiently Abiding wrack and scaith! O Faith, that meets ten thousand cheats Yet drops no jot of faith! |