If This Be All

Use Tab to move through poem lines. Press Enter or Space to select a line. Hold Shift while selecting a second line to create a shared range.

1. O God! if this indeed be all
2. That Life can show to me;
3. If on my aching brow may fall
4. No freshening dew from Thee;
5.  
6. If with no brighter light than this
7. The lamp of hope may glow,
8. And I may only dream of bliss,
9. And wake to weary woe;
10.  
11. If friendship's solace must decay,
12. When other joys are gone,
13. And love must keep so far away,
14. While I go wandering on,--
15.  
16. Wandering and toiling without gain,
17. The slave of others' will,
18. With constant care, and frequent pain,
19. Despised, forgotten still;
20.  
21. Grieving to look on vice and sin,
22. Yet powerless to quell
23. The silent current from within,
24. The outward torrent's swell
25.  
26. While all the good I would impart,
27. The feelings I would share,
28. Are driven backward to my heart,
29. And turned to wormwood there;
30.  
31. If clouds must EVER keep from sight
32. The glories of the Sun,
33. And I must suffer Winter's blight,
34. Ere Summer is begun;
35.  
36. If Life must be so full of care,
37. Then call me soon to thee;
38. Or give me strength enough to bear
39. My load of misery.