LIII
Reading edition
O MIGHTY Prophet, who dost signify To little man the vanity of life, The folly of its temporary strife, Give to the only one who doth deny My love some passing sense, to gratify The constant longing that is ever rife Within my soul, and sever with a knife This fatal cord, my love is fettered by. With some such prayer to thee would I appeal, In impotence, to strike ’gainst nature’s law, That causeth love unhonored still to live. Before thy throne now humbly do I kneel, As at the feet of her whom I adore, And pray that love to me thou still mayst give.