Classic Poem

Lord, hear my prayer and let my cry pass
Unto thee, Lord, without impediment.
Do not from me turn thy merciful face,
Unto myself leaving my government.
In time of trouble and adversity
Incline to me thine ear and thine intent.
And when I call, help my necessity,
Readily grant th'effect of my desire.
These bold demands do please thy majesty
And eke my case such haste doth well require.
For like as smoke my days been passed away,
My bones dried up as furnace with the fire.
My heart, my mind is withered up like hay
Because I have forgot to take my bread,
My bread of life, the word of truth, I say.
And for my plaintful sighs and my dread,
My bones, my strength, my very force of mind
Cleaved to the flesh and from thy sprite were fled
As desperate thy mercy for to find.
So made I me the solein pelican
And like the owl that fleeth by proper kind
Light of the day and hath herself beta'en
To ruin life out of all company.
With waker care that with this woe began,
Like the sparrow was I solitary
That sits alone under the house's eaves.
This while my foes conspired continually
And did provoke the harm of my disease.
Wherefore like ashes my bread did me savour;
Of thy just word the taste might not me please.
Wherefore my drink I tempered with liquor
Of weeping tears that from mine eyes do rain
Because I know the wrath of thy furor,
Provoked by right, had of my pride disdain
For thou didst lift me up to throw me down,
To teach me how to know myself again;
Whereby I know that helpless I should drown.
My days like shadow decline and I do dry
And thee forever eternity doth crown;
World without end doth last thy memory.
For this frailty that yoketh all mankind —
Thou shalt awake and rue this misery,
Rue on Zion, Zion that, as I find,
Is the people that live under thy law.
For now is time, the time at hand assigned,
The time so long that doth thy servants draw
In great desire to see that pleasant day,
Day of redeeming Zion from sin's awe.
For they have ruth to see in such decay,
In dust and stones, this wretched Zion lower.
Then the gentiles shall dread thy name alway;
All earthly kings thy glory shall honour
Then when thy grace this Zion thus redeemeth,
When thus thou hast declared thy mighty power.
The Lord his servants' wishes so esteemeth
That he him turn'th unto the poors' request.
To our descent this to be written seemeth,
Of all comforts, as consolation best;
And they that then shall be regenerate
Shall praise the Lord therefore, both most and least.
For he hath looked from the height of his estate;
The Lord from heaven in earth hath looked on us
To hear the moan of them that are algate
In foul bondage, to loose and to discuss
The sons of death out from their deadly bond,
To give thereby occasion gracious
In this Zion his holy name to stand
And in Jerusalem his lauds, lasting ay,
When in one church the people of the land
And realms been gathered to serve, to laud, to pray
The Lord above so just and merciful.
But to this sembly running in the way,
My strength faileth to reach it at the full.
He hath abridged my days; they may not dure
To see that term, that term so wonderful,
Although I have with hearty will and cure
Prayed to the Lord: " Take me not, Lord, away
In mids of my years, though thine ever sure
Remain eterne, whom time cannot decay.
Thou wrought'st the earth; thy hands th'heavens did make:
They shall perish and thou shalt last alway.
And all things age shall wear and overtake
Like cloth, and thou shalt change them like apparel,
Turn and translate, and they in worth it take.
But thou thyself the self remainest well
That thou wast erst, and shalt thy years extend.
Then since to this there may nothing rebel
The greatest comfort that I can pretend
Is that the children of thy servants dear,
That in thy word are got, shall without end
Before thy face be stablished all in fere."