THOU ART INDEED JUST, LORD - Thomas Hood Poems

 
 

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THOU ART INDEED JUST, LORD

Justus quidem tu es, Domine, si disputem tecum; verumtamen
justa loquar ad te: quare via impiorum prosperatur? &c. (Jerem. xii 1.)

Thou art indeed just, Lord, if I contend
    With thee; but, sir, so what I plead is just.
    Why do sinners' ways prosper? and why must
Disappointment all I endeavour end?
Wert thou my enemy, O thou my friend,
    How wouldst thou worse, I wonder, than thou dost
    Defeat, thwart me? Oh, the sots and thralls of lust
Do in spare hours more thrive than I that spend,

Sir, life upon thy cause. See, banks and brakes
    Now, leavèd how thick! lacèd they are again
With fretty chervil, look, and fresh wind shakes
    Them; birds build -- but not I build; no, but strain,
Time's eunuch, and not breed one work that wakes.
    Mine, O thou lord of life, send my roots rain.