View source for Page:The poetical works of Robert Burns.djvu/122

<noinclude><pagequality level="3" user="Chrisguise" />{{rvh|70|''THE POEMS OF BURNS''.}} {{rule}}</noinclude><section begin="s1" />{{c|{{larger|''A PRAYER, IN THE PROSPECT OF DEATH.''}}}}

{{ppoem|{{sc|O Thou}} unknown, Almighty Cause
{{em}}Of all my hope and fear!
In whose dread presence, ere an hour,
{{em}}Perhaps I must appear!

If I have wander'd in those paths
{{em}}Of life I ought to shun;
As something, loudly in my breast,
{{em}}Remonstrates I have done;

Thou know'st that Thou hast formed me
{{em}}With passions wild and strong;
And list'ning to their witching voice
{{em}}Has often led me wrong.

Where human weakness has come short,
{{em}}Or frailty stept aside,
Do Thou, All-Good! for such Thou art,
{{em}}In shades of darkness hide.

Where with intention I have err'd,
{{em}}No other plea I have,
But, Thou art good; and Goodness still
{{em}}Delighteth to forgive.}}
{{dhr}}
<section end="s1" />
<section begin="s2" />{{c|{{larger|''STANZAS ON THE SAME OCCASION.''}}}}

{{ppoem|{{sc|Why}} am I loth to leave this earthly scene!
{{em}}Have I so found it full of pleasing charms?
Some drops of joy with draughts of ill between:
{{em}}Some gleams of sunshine 'mid renewing storms;
Is it departing pangs my soul alarms?
{{em}}Or Death's unlovely, dreary, dark abode?
For guilt, for guilt, my terrors are in arms;
{{em}}I tremble to approach an angry God,
And justly smart beneath his sin-avenging rod.

Fain would I say, 'Forgive my foul offence!'
{{em}}Fain promise never more to disobey;
But, should my Author health again dispense,
{{em}}Again I might desert fair virtue's way;
Again in folly's path might go astray;
{{em}}Again exalt the brute, and sink the man;
Then how should I for Heavenly mercy pray,
{{em}}Who act so counter Heavenly mercy's plan?
Who sin so oft have mourn'd, yet to temptation ran?

O Thou, great Governor of all below!
{{em}}If I may dare a lifted eye to Thee,
Thy nod can make the tempest cease to blow,
{{em}}And still the tumult of the raging sea:
With that controuling pow'r assist ev'n me,
{{em}}Those headlong furious passions to confine,
For all unfit I feel my powers be,
{{em}}To rule their torrent in th' allowed line;
O, aid me with Thy help, Omnipotence Divine!}}<section end="s2" /><noinclude></noinclude>