The Last Poems of Alice and Phoebe Cary Author:Alice Cary General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1874 Original Publisher: Hurd and Houghton Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you c... more »an select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: POEMS OF THOUGHT. SUPPLICATION. Dear gracious Lord, if that thy pain Doth make me well, if I have strayed Past mercy, let my hands be laid One in the other ; not in vain Would I be dressed, Lord, in the beauteous clay Which thou did'st put away. But if thou yet canst find in me A vine, though trailing on the ground, That might be straightened up, and bound To any good, so let it be; And, haply at the last, some tendril-ring Unto thy hand shall cling. I have been too much used, I know, To tell my needs in fretful words. The clamoring of the silly birds, Impatient for their wings to grow, Has thy forgiveness ; O my blessed Lord, The like to me accord. Of grace, as much as will complete Thy will in me, I pray thee for ; Even as a rose shut in a drawer, That maketh all about it sweet, I would be, rather than the cedar, fine, Help me, thou Power divine. Fill thou my heart with love as full As any lily with the rain ; Unteach me ever to complain, And make my scarlet sins as wool; Yea, wash me, even with sorrows, clean and fair, As lightnings do the air. PLEDGES. Sometimes the softness of the embracing air, The tender beauty of the grass and sky, The look of still repose the mountains wear, The sea-waves that beside each other lie Contented in the sun -- the flowery gleams Of gardens by the doors of cottages, The sweet, delusive blessedness of dreams, The pleasant murmurs of the forest trees Clinging to one another -- all I see, And hear, and all that fancy paints, Do touch me with a deep humility, And make me be ashamed of my complai...« less