(p. 37)

 

10.

 

“SISTER LOUISE DE LA MISÉRICORDE.”

 

            ALAS! I cannot pray, –– my heart within

            Burns with mad conflict, –– love, despair, and sin,

                        Only escapes a silent cry

                        From my soul’s depth of agony,

            Like a little cloud rising out of the sea,

            Out of the restless surging sea, ––

            “O LORD! remember, remember me!”

 

            Alas! I cannot weep, –– I have no tears,

            They are all dried up with the woes of years,

                        And only that one ceaseless cry,

                        Through my heart echoes silently,

            Like the evening bell sounding over the lea, ––

            Over the sunless, pathless lea, ––

            “O LORD! remember, remember me!”

 

            I cannot sleep, –– for love and restless pain

            Throb in my heart, and madden all my brain;

                        And so I wake, and wearied lie

                        Repeating still that voiceless cry,

(p. 38)

            Entreating, O GOD, in the darkness with Thee,

            In the darkness alone with Thee, ––

            “O LORD! remember, remember me!”

 

            And so the morning finds me, and I rise

            With heavy aching heart and burning eyes,

                        Creep to my work with weary feet,

                        And still within my soul repeat,

            Like a caged bird that longs to be free,

            Sits alone and pines to be free, ––

            “O LORD! remember, remember me!”

 

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