English

As it might easily be made appear
A perfect sameness in the inner frame
Of the mind's structure, in two beings here
Would argue that their persons were the same —
Though biform, two such beings would but claim
Common identity. Therefore, I say,
At such a consentaneousness to aim,
Is, but in other words, to be the prey
Of wishes fond as those which did Narcissus sway.

No, no! There is but One, God is that one,
Who all the soul's deep wants can satisfy;
No, no! There is but One, that Being alone
Who made the heart, who thoroughly can spy
Its labyrinthine windings. We may try
To find another self as well, may seek
As soon to double our identity
As hope on earth the blessing to bespeak
Of perfect love in man, so faulty and so weak!

I've elsewhere said, " cannot in earth, or heaven,
Being be found, from stigma of a dream
To rescue him who hath with much toil striven
For human sympathy? " Such the extreme
Of folly, to expect, from turbid stream,
To draw transparent waters, as to try
In what is finite, what we still must deem
Imperfect, stamped with mutability,
There realized to find perfectibility!

Yes, be thou " with me in the way I go! "
Whether or poverty or wealth thou send; —
Be thou my all in all! Be thee to know, —
My heart's best treasure — as my soul's best friend!
To touch unworthily, do thou forefend,
With an unhallowed hand, that ark of thine! —
What, what am I? Though in the dust I bend,
Let me rejoice, that while I lowly pine,
Thousands of purer souls, in thy white raiment shine!

Yes, let me never, never turn from thee! —
Whether I be an instrument of use:
Or whether I am bound to bend the knee
In nothingness; — whether I can produce
Aught of effect; or whether, thou, t'unloose,
To unloose utterly, the mortal strings,
Which bind me to this world, see'st fit, with noose,
Hard as the gordian knot, to cramp my wings,
And stamp me while I live, vilest of vilest things!

Yet, if thy will be such, that neither I, —
Or for " another and a better world, " —
Must throw my mite in of utility; —
Or e'en, in this, must see the flag unfurl'd
Of active use; — if I must thus be hurl'd, —
To keep me humble, from each high career,
Whence man is hailed with blessings; — if I'm whirled
Thus, from distinction's gratifying sphere: —
Still moisten my pale cheek with gratitude's meek tear! —

I then implore that thou would'st fashion so
My natural talents, that, with them, I may
Become a labourer while here below,
To lessen human sorrows! — Oh, I pray
That I may be a something! — May the day,
E'en of my pilgrimage, or ere it wane
Behold a monument, whence men may say,
" He, in his day, did his day's work! " Oh deign
My lot to rescue from " unprofitable " stain!

Father! I ask, or in thy vineyard deign
To let me be a labourer; to be
But " in thy house " " a door-keeper! " — no strain
Of mine shall then flow discontentedly.
Oh deign to make me something; deign on me
To shed th' anointing oil, that I may sing
Loudly thy praises! — Or, if thy decree
Claimant unfit deem me to touch the string
Of thy most hallowed harp, hear my petitioning, —

Father who gav'st me talents, 'tis my prayer,
Since all unfit for bustling scenes I be,
Since sequestration from those places, where
Mankind, to grave affairs, most actively
Is called, best suits my pensive tendency: —
Do thou my humble aspiration bless,
To bring a contribution tremblingly
To that pure stock of truth, whose perfectness
Best stays man's tottering steps through life's bleak wilderness.

'Twixt other attributes which man doth share
This is the difference, and religious lore,
That ere on its first rudiments he dare
To cast an eye, e'en to its inmost core
The heart must be renewed; no soul can soar
To its most simple rules, till, on the wings
Of the most holy Dove, it learn t'explore
Truths, which, to those are, round whom this world clings,
In heaven's own archives kept, unutterable things!