Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, SUPPLICATION (1), by ALICE CARY


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

SUPPLICATION (1), by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Dear gracious lord, if that thy pain
Last Line: As lightnings do the air.
Subject(s): Prayer


DEAR gracious Lord, if that thy pain
Doth make me well, if I have strayed
Past mercy, let my hands be laid
One in the other; not in vain
Would I be dressed, Lord, in the beauteous clay
Which thou did'st put away.

But if thou yet canst find in me
A vine, though trailing on the ground,
That might be straightened up, and bound
To any good, so let it be;
And, haply at the last, some tendrilring
Unto thy hand shall cling.

I have been too much used, I know,
To tell my needs in fretful words.
The clamoring of the silly birds,
Impatient for their wings to grow,
Has thy forgiveness; O my blessed Lord,
The like to me accord.

Of grace, as much as will complete
Thy will in me, I pray thee for;
Even as a rose shut in a drawer,
That maketh all about it sweet,
I would be, rather than the cedar, fine,
Help me, thou Power divine.

Fill thou my heart with love as full
As any lily with the rain;
Unteach me ever to complain,
And make my scarlet sins as wool;
Yea, wash me, even with sorrows, clean and fair,
As lightnings do the air.





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