| |
| O LORD! upon whose will dependeth my welfare, | |
| To call upon thy holy name, since day nor night I spare, | |
| Grant that the just request of this repentant mind | |
| So pierce thine ears, that in thy sight some favour it may find. | |
| My soul is fraughted full with grief of follies past; | 5 |
| My restless body doth consume, and death approacheth fast: | |
| Like them whose fatal thread, thy hand hath cut in twain; | |
| Of whom there is no further bruit, which in their graves remain. | |
| Oh Lord! thou hast me cast headlong, to please my foe, | |
| Into a pit all bottomless, whereas I plain my woe. | 10 |
| The burden of thy wrath it doth me sore oppress; | |
| And sundry storms thou hast me sent of terror and distress. | |
| The faithful friends are fled and banished from my sight: | |
| And such as I have held full dear, have set my friendship light. | |
| My durance doth persuade of freedom such despair, | 15 |
| That by the tears that bain my breast, mine eyesight doth appair. 1 | |
| Yet do I never cease thine aid for to desire, | |
| With humble heart and stretched hands, for to appease thine ire. | |
| Wherefore dost thou forbear in the defence of thine, | |
| To shew such tokens of thy power in sight of Adam’s line; | 20 |
| Whereby each feeble heart with faith might so be fed, | |
| That in the mouth of thy elect thy mercies might be spread. | |
| The flesh that feedeth worms cannot thy love declare! | |
| Nor such set forth thy praise as dwell in the land of despair. | |
| In blind indured hearts light of thy lively name | 25 |
| Cannot appear, nor cannot judge the brightness of the same. | |
| Nor blazed may thy name be by the mouths of those | |
| Whom death hath shut in silence, so as they may not disclose. | |
| The lively voice of them that in thy word delight, | |
| Must be the trump that must resound the glory of thy might. | 30 |
| Wherefore I shall not cease, in chief of my distress | |
| To call on Thee, till that the sleep my wearied limbs oppress. | |
| And in the morning eke when that the sleep is fled, | |
| With floods of salt repentant tears to wash my restless bed. | |
| Within this careful mind, burden’d with care and grief, | 35 |
| Why dost thou not appear, Oh Lord! that shouldst be his relief. | |
| My wretched state behold, whom death shall straight assail; | |
| Of one, from youth afflicted still, that never did but wail. | |
| The dread, lo! of thine ire hath trod me under feet: | |
| The scourges of thine angry hand hath made death seem full sweet. | 40 |
| Like as the roaring waves the sunken ship surround, | |
| Great heaps of care did swallow me, and I no succour found: | |
| For they whom no mischance could from my love divide, | |
| Are forced, for my greater grief, from me their face to hide. | |
