Canto LIV

The wish, that of the living whole

      No life may fail beyond the grave:

      Derives it not from what we have

The likest God within the soul?

Are God and Nature then at strife,

      That Nature lends such evil dreams?

      So careful of the type she seems,

So careless of the single life;

That I, considering everywhere

      Her secret meaning in her deeds,

      And finding that of fifty seeds

She often brings but one to bear;

I falter where I firmly trod,

      And falling with my weight of cares

      Upon the great world's altar-stairs

That slope thro' darkness up to God;

I stretch lame hands of faith, and grope,

      And gather dust and chaff, and call

      To what I feel is Lord of all,

And faintly trust the larger hope.