Rossetti, Christina Georgina, 1830-1894: [Alas my Lord] [from The Complete Poems (1979-1990)]

Alas my Lord

1       Alas my Lord,
2    How should I wrestle all the livelong night
3    With Thee my God, my Strength and my Delight?

4       How can it need
5    So agonized an effort and a strain
6    To make Thy Face of Mercy shine again?

7       How can it need
8    Such wringing out of breathless prayer to move
9    Thee to Thy wonted Love, when Thou art Love?

10       Yet Abraham
11    So hung about Thine Arm outstretched and bared,
12    That for ten righteous Sodom had been spared.

13       Yet Jacob did
14    So hold Thee by the clenched hand of prayer
15    That he prevailed, and Thou didst bless him there.

16       Elias prayed,
17    And sealed the founts of Heaven; he prayed again
18    And lo, Thy Blessing fell in showers of rain.

19       Gulped by the fish,
20    As by the pit, lost

Jonah made his moan;
21    And Thou forgavest, waiting to atone.

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22       All Nineveh
23    Fasting and girt in sackcloth raised a cry,
24    Which moved Thee ere the day of grace went by.

25       Thy Church prayed on
26    And on for blessed Peter in his strait,
27    Till opened of its own accord the gate.

28       Yea, Thou my God
29    Hast prayed all night, and in the garden prayed
30    Even while, like melting wax, Thy strength was made.

31       Alas for him
32    Who faints, despite Thy Pattern, King of Saints:
33    Alas, alas, for me, the one that faints.

34       Lord, give us strength
35    To hold Thee fast, until we hear Thy Voice
36    Which Thine own know, who hearing It rejoice.

37       Lord, give us strength
38    To hold Thee fast until we see Thy Face,
39    Full Fountain of all Rapture and all Grace.

40       But when our strength
41    Shall be made weakness, and our bodies clay,
42    Hold Thou us fast, and give us sleep till day.