| O LORD, the Giver of my days, | |
| My heart is ready, my heart is ready; | |
| I dare not hold my peace, nor pause, | |
| For I am fain to sing Thy praise. | |
| |
| I praise Thee not, with impious pride, | 5 |
| For that Thy partial hand has given | |
| Bounties of wealth or form or brain, | |
| Good gifts to other men denied. | |
| |
| Nor weary Thee with blind request, | |
| For fancied goods Thy hand withholds; | 10 |
| I know not what to fear or hope, | |
| Nor aught but that Thy will is best. | |
| |
| Not whence I come, nor whither I go, | |
| Nor wherefore I am here, I know; | |
| Nor if my life’s tale ends on earth, | 15 |
| Or mounts to bliss, or sinks to woe. | |
| |
| Nor know I aught of Thee, O Lord; | |
| Behind the veil Thy face is hidden: | |
| We faint, and yet Thy face is hidden; | |
| We cry,—Thou answerest not a word. | 20 |
| |
| But this I know, O Lord, Thou art, | |
| And by Thee I too live and am; | |
| We stand together, face to face, | |
| Thou the great whole, and I the part. | |
| |
| We stand together, soul to soul, | 25 |
| Alone amidst Thy waste of worlds; | |
| Unchanged, though all creation fade, | |
| And Thy swift suns forget to roll. | |
| |
| Wherefore, because my life is Thine, | |
| Because, without Thee I were not; | 30 |
| Because, as doth the sea, the sun, | |
| My nature gives back the Divine. | |
| |
| Because my being with ceaseless flow | |
| Sets to Thee as the brook to the sea; | |
| Turns to Thee, as the flower to the sun, | 35 |
| And seeks what it may never know. | |
| |
| Because, without me Thou hadst been | |
| For ever, seated midst Thy suns; | |
| Marking the soulless cycles turn, | |
| Yet wert Thyself unknown, unseen. | 40 |
| |
| I praise Thee, everlasting Lord, | |
| In life and death, in heaven and hell: | |
| What care I, since indeed Thou art, | |
| And I the creature of Thy word. | |
| |
| Only if such a thing may be: | 45 |
| When all Thy infinite will is done, | |
| Take back the soul Thy breath has given, | |
| And let me lose myself in Thee. | |
