Petition
Reading edition
Petition
Truth, whom I hold divine,
Thy wings are strong to bear
Thro’ day or desperate night;
For, ever those eyes of thine,
Fix’d upward full of prayer,
Are seeking for the light.
Guide me and bear. Descend
Into the sulphurous void—
Tho’ I so weak, thy wings
Stronger than him who, pen’d
In hell unmerited, buoy’d
Poets past infernal springs.
Take me and bear. Descend
Into these deeps of death,
Wherever the light may lead,
Wherever the way may wend;
And give to my failing breath,
O Spirit, thy words of deed.
1890-3.
IN EXILE