| Alfred H. Miles, ed. The Sacred Poets of the Nineteenth Century. 1907. | | | Sonnets.
II. Reason and Faith | | By James Drummond Burns (1823–1864) |
| |
HOW many are the mysteries that lie | |
| Along life’s winding way, and vex the mind | |
| With restless speculation, vague and blind: | |
| In vain doth Reason hold her torch on high | |
| To trace the round of calm Infinity, | 5 |
| In all its sapphire clearness; in the gloom | |
| She gropes, until she stumbles o’er a tomb; | |
| Earth’s roof of cloud to her is all the sky. | |
| But Faith, while in the temple-court she keeps | |
| Her midnight watch, sees up the azure deeps | 10 |
| God’s name in starry cipher written fair,— | |
| The vision of His Wisdom, Power, and Love, | |
| Serenely throned these drifting mists above, | |
| Revealed unto the upward gaze of Prayer. | | | | |
|
|
