Henry Septimus Sutton (1825-1901). Rose's Diary (1850). "What mean these slow returns of love?" Alfred H. Miles, ed. 1907. The Sacred Poets of the Nineteenth Century

Alfred H. Miles, ed. The Sacred Poets of the Nineteenth Century. 1907.

Rose’s Diary (1850).
“What mean these slow returns of love?”

By Henry Septimus Sutton (1825–1901)


X. NOVEMBER. WHAT mean these slow returns of love; these days
Of wither’d prayer; of dead unflowering praise?
These hands of twilight laid on me to keep
Dusk veils on holy vision? This most deep,
Most eyelid-heavy, lamentable sleep?	5

Lo, time is precious as it was before;
As sinful, sin; my goal as unattain’d;
And yet I drowse, and dream, and am not pain’d
At God far off as ever heretofore,—
At sin as flagrant as of old, or more.	10

Dear Lord, what can I do? I come to Thee:
I have none other helper. Thou art free
To save me, or to kill. But I appeal
To Thine own love which will not elsewise deal
Than prove Thyself my help, Thy will my weal.	15

Wake, wake me, God of love! and let Thy fire
Loosen these icicles and make them drop
And run into warm tears; for I aspire
To hold Thee faster, dearer, warmer, nigher,
And love and serve Thee henceforth without stop.	20