Poems (Hoffman)/Love's Petition

by Martha Lavinia Hoffman

LOVE'S PETITION

A sharper or more bitter sorrow prove,—
Hath Fate a keener thrust,
Than when his dart reveals that one we love
  We cannot trust?

Is there one thing too hard for God to do,
One foe (save this) too strong for Him to kill,
To make the evil, good; the false heart, true,
  Against its will?

Out of the dark, dark earth white lilies bloom,
Faith sings, sometime, somewhere,
Hope springs immortal from her winter tomb,
  Sin only is despair.

But is the falsity of those we love
Unfelt, O Christ, by Thee!
Our sin, alas, was this the anguish of
  Gethsemane?

Then send, O heaven, when words are mockeries,
Strong angels from thy throne
To where in dark, unseen Gethsemane,
  Love prays alone.