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 | The Poetical Works of (Richard Monckton Milnes) Lord Houghton |  |
215
PRAYER.
In reverence will we speak of those that wooThe ear Divine with clear and ready prayer;
And, while their voices cleave the Sabbath air,
Know their bright thoughts are winging heavenward too.
Yet many a one,—“the latchet of whose shoe”
These might not loose,—will often only dare
Lay some poor words between him and despair—
“Father forgive! we know not what we do.”
For, as Christ pray'd, so echoes our weak heart,
Yearning the ways of God to vindicate,
But worn and wilder'd by the shows of fate,
Of good oppressed and beautiful defiled,
Dim alien force, that draws or holds apart
From its dear home that wandering spirit-child.
| The Poetical Works of (Richard Monckton Milnes) Lord Houghton | |