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Read more poems by Gerard Manley Hopkins: Gerard Manley Hopkins Poems at Poetry X.

Justus quidem tu es, Domine, si disputem tecum: 
verumtamen justa loquar ad te: 
Quare via impiorum prosperatur? &c.


Thou art indeed just, Lord, if I contend
With thee; but, sir, so what I plead is just.
Why do sinners' ways prosper? and why must
Disappointment all I endeavour end? 

  Wert thou my enemy, O thou my friend,
How wouldst thou worse, I wonder, than thou dost
Defeat, thwart me? Oh, the sots and thralls of lust
Do in spare hours more thrive than I that spend,
Sir, life upon thy cause. See, banks and brakes
Now leavèd how thick! lacèd they are again
With fretty chervil, look, and fresh wind shakes
Them; birds build -- but not I build; no, but strain,
Time's eunuch, and not breed one work that wakes.
Mine, O thou lord of life, send my roots rain.   

Added: 12 Aug 2002 | Last Read: 7 Jun 2025 4:38 PM | Viewed: 9219 times

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