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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

DE PROFOUNDIS by ALFRED NOYES

Poet Analysis

First Line: THOU WHO HAST TAKEN THE DUST OF THE EARTH AND FASHIONED
Last Line: PITY THOU ME!
THOU who hast taken the dust of the earth and fashioned
Of thine own joy and pain
This body, with thine own love endowed and empassioned
Till it return again
Dust into dust, oh Thou who livest and reignest
To all Eternity,
Like as a father pitieth his children,
Pity Thou me.

Thou who hast made me an heir to the sins of the ages
With power to look above
And claim, if I will, thine agony for my wages,
Thy wages for my love;
To wash in the bitter streams of eternal anguish
That redden sky and sea,
Like as a father pitieth his children,
Pity Thou me!

Thou who hast given me the law and the will and the power,
The weakness and the worth,
The strength to struggle and conquer for an hour
And then sink back to the earth,
See, Lord, my heart was broken in that great darkness;
Lord Christ, wilt Thou not see?
Like as a father pitieth his children
Pity Thou me.

Thou who hast given me the wonder and the vision,
The dream and the desire;
Yet withered them root and branch ere their fruition,
Heaped dust upon my fire,
Given me the blinded eyes, the feet to wander
How far, oh God, from Thee,
Like as a father pitieth his children
Pity Thou me.

Thou who hast given me friends and the heart to wound them,
Even whom I loved the most;
Even when mine arms were yearning to go round them
My mouth could scoff and boast;
Or I was dumb, when all the soul of sorrow
Cried unto Love and Thee,
Like as a father pitieth his children
Pity Thou me.

Not for the seed of goodness idly cherished
With blind and secret tears;
Not for the frail ideal dreams that perished
With the dull lapse of years;
Be near me now; thy creature in its weakness
Can only cry to Thee --
Like as a father pitieth his children,
Pity Thou me.

Thou who hast given me love and again hast taken
The loved one from my side,
Who am all too weak; ah, why hast Thou forsaken
Me, not Thy Crucified,
Father, only Thy little one, not the Master
Of earth and sky and sea?
Like as a father pitieth his children,
Pity Thou me!



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