Page:Poems Curwen.djvu/217

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is there a hell?
209

Is there a Hell?
WRITTEN DURING A NEWSPAPER CONTROVERSY ON THE SUBJECT.

O God! great God! answer Thou me,
If mortal may dare to question Thee,—
    Is there a hell?
A place of torment where the soul,
Long as eternal ages roll,
    Is doomed to dwell?
A place where, to appease Thine ire,
The souls of men must burn in fire
    Unquenchable?

Father! O Father, Infinite!
Would'st doom to everlasting night,
    To endless pain,
Souls that repented them too late?
Is Divine wrath insatiate?
    And would'st Thou gain
Aught that would serve a God like Thee
By witnessing the misery
    Of suff'ring men?

O God! great God! pity Thou me,
If, questioning thus, I anger Thee;
    But we rebel
Against the thought that love like Thine
Could such a fiendish plan design
    As create hell;
The thought is a monstrosity—
A slur on Thy divinity:
    Is there a hell?