PETITION

O Lord, I pray: that for each happiness

My housemate brings I may give back no less

Than all my fertile will;

That I may take from friends but as the stream

Creates again the hawthorn bloom adream

Above the river sill;

That I may see the spurge upon the wall

And hear the nesting birds give call to call,

Keeping my wonder new;

That I may have a body fit to mate

With the green fields, and stars, and streams in spate,

And clean as clover-dew;

That I may have the courage to confute

All fools with silence when they will dispute,

All fools who will deride;

That I may know all strict and sinewy art

As that in man which is the counterpart,

Lord, of Thy fiercest pride;

That somehow this beloved earth may wear

A later grace for all the love I bear,

For some song that I sing;

That, when I die, this word may stand for me —

He had a heart to praise, an eye to see,

And beauty was his king.