 | Sonnets and Other Poems Chiefly Religious |  |
2
COMMENCEMENT.
The years appear to mock me as they fly,O heavenly Father! half my life is done,
And yet my work is scarcely well begun.
Grant me the power to do, before I die,
Some work worth doing! Let me glorify
Thee, and my Saviour! Grant me to achieve
Some conquest for mankind; and let me leave
Something behind me which, as time goes by,
Into the common garner may be brought
Of true and pure and fruitful human thought.
On those foundations let me build, which lie
Laid by no mortal hand; and when the flame
Tries all things, what they are and whence they came,
Oh, let my work abide eternally.
| Sonnets and Other Poems Chiefly Religious | |