Page:Poems Rossetti.djvu/268

 Soothing their drunken masters with a song,
 Or dancing in their golden tinkling gyves:
Accurst if they remember through the long
 Estrangement of their exile, twice accursed
 If they forget and join the accursed throng.
How doth my heart that is so wrung not burst
 When I remember that my way was plain,
 And that God's candle lit me at the first,
Whilst now I grope in darkness, grope in vain,
 Desiring but to find Him Who is lost,
 To find Him once again, but once again!
His wrath came on us to the uttermost,
 His covenanted and most righteous wrath:
 Yet this is He of Whom we made our boast,
Who lit the Fiery Pillar in our path,
 Who swept the Red Sea dry before our feet,
 Who in His jealousy smote kings, and hath
Sworn once to David: One shall fill thy seat
 Born of thy body, as the sun and moon
 'Stablished for aye in sovereignty complete.
O Lord, remember David, and that soon.
 The Glory hath departed, Ichabod!
 Yet now, before our sun grow dark at noon,
Before we come to nought beneath Thy rod,
 Before we go down quick into the pit,
 Remember us for good, O God, our God:—
Thy Name will I remember, praising it,
 Though Thou forget me, though Thou hide Thy face,
 And blot me from the Book which Thou hast writ;