New Zealand Verse/The Saddest Cross
CXXI.
The Saddest Cross.
He who hath walked in darkness since his birth,
Who ne’er hath known the glory of the day,
Alike to him are shadow and sun-ray;
He never wearies at the daylight’s dearth.
But he who once hath revelled in Life’s mirth
Right heartfully, and now must ever stray
Where sunbeams never either laugh or play,
He bears the saddest cross in all the earth.
Lord, long content I wandered in the night:
Knowing not light, the dark seemed good to me,
Then didst thou curse me with divinest sight,
A space I looked on Love’s divinity.
Ah, God, if I had never known that light,
I ne’er had known how dark these shadows be.
Who ne’er hath known the glory of the day,
Alike to him are shadow and sun-ray;
He never wearies at the daylight’s dearth.
But he who once hath revelled in Life’s mirth
Right heartfully, and now must ever stray
Where sunbeams never either laugh or play,
He bears the saddest cross in all the earth.
Lord, long content I wandered in the night:
Knowing not light, the dark seemed good to me,
Then didst thou curse me with divinest sight,
A space I looked on Love’s divinity.
Ah, God, if I had never known that light,
I ne’er had known how dark these shadows be.