A Prayer

O God when the heart is warmest,
And the head is clearest,
Give me to act:
To turn the purposes thou formest
Into fact.
O God, when what is dearest
Seems most dear,
And the path before lies straight,
With neither Chance nor Fate
In my career,—
Then let me act. The wicket gate
In sight, let me not wait, not wait.

We do not always fight.
There comes a dull
And anxious watching. After night
Follows dim dawn before the day is full.
But there's a time to speak, as to be dumb.
O God, when mine shall come,
And I put forth
My strength for blame or praise,
Blow Thou the fire in my heart's hearth
Into a blaze—
(Who kindled it but Thou?)
And let me feel upon that first of days
As I feel now.