THE INVITATION
by: Robert Hugh Benson
(1871-1914)
- ord take Thine ease within my heart,
- Rest here and count Thyself at home
- Do as Thou wilt; rise, set, depart;
- My Master, not my guest, Thou art
- Come as Thou wilt, but come, Lord, come.
- Do Thine own pleasure. Surely, Lord,
- Thou art full free to come and go,
- To lift my sorrow by a word,
- Or pierce me with a sudden sword,
- And leave me sobbing in my woe.
- Come in broad day, for good or ill,
- In time of business or of prayer;
- Come in disguise, if so Thy Will
- Be better served, that I may still
- Wait on my Lord, though unaware.
- Come with the dawn, shine in on me
- And wake my soul with welcome light;
- Or let the twilight herald Thee,
- And falling dusk Thy shelter be
- To shroud Thy coming from my sight.
- Come by the way beneath the trees
- Where whispering heath and bracken stir
- There, where my spirit takes her ease,
- Let that pure scented evening breeze
- Waft me the aloes and the myrrh.
- Come, tender Lover, still and bright;
- Rose crowned and framed in gracious form
- Or come with terror, and by night,
- Thundrous and girt with vivid light,
- A giant striding with the storm.
- Come through the Cloister, past the lawn
- And laurels where the thin jet plays
- Where, from the wrangling world withdrawn,
- Waking to silence dawn by dawn,
- My soul comes forth to studious days.
- Come through the carven door, and bring
- A burst of Music through to me;
- One chord of organ-thundering
- And measured song of those that sing,
- Dear Saviour, to the praise of Thee.
- Or come by some forgotten way
- Untrodden long and overgrown;
- And on a sudden on a day
- Burst in; snap web and ivy spray
- That claim the entrance for their own.
- So many doors, and all divine,
- And every latch is loose to Thee;
- So many paths, and all are Thine
- That bring Thee to this heart of mine,
- And all are therefore dear to me!
"The Invitation" is reprinted from Poems. Robert Hugh Benson. New York: P.J. Kenedy
& Sons, 1914. |
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