Last Lines
Last Lines
Original Text
Anne Brontë, The Complete Poems of Anne Brontë, ed. Clement Shorter, introduction by C. W. Hatfield (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1920): 148-50. PR 4162 A2S5 1920 Robarts Library
2 My portioned task might lie;
3To toil amid the busy throng,
4 With purpose pure and high.
5But God has fixed another part,
6 And He has fixed it well;
7I said so with my bleeding heart,
8 When first the anguish fell.
9A dreadful darkness closes in
10 On my bewildered mind;
11Oh, let me suffer and not sin,
12 Be tortured, yet resigned.
13Shall I with joy thy blessings share
14 And not endure their loss?
15Or hope the martyr's crown to wear
16 And cast away the cross?
17Thou, God, hast taken our delight,
18 Our treasured hope away;
19Thou bidst us now weep through the night
20 And sorrow through the day.
21These weary hours will not be lost,
22 These days of misery,
23These nights of darkness, anguish-tost,
24 Can I but turn to Thee.
25Weak and weary though I lie,
26 Crushed with sorrow, worn with pain,
27I may lift to Heaven mine eye,
28 And strive to labour not in vain;
29That inward strife against the sins
30 That ever wait on suffering
31To strike whatever first begins:
32 Each ill that would corruption bring;
33That secret labour to sustain
34 With humble patience every blow;
35To gather fortitude from pain,
36 And hope and holiness from woe.
37Thus let me serve Thee from my heart,
38 Whate'er may be my written fate:
39Whether thus early to depart,
40 Or yet a while to wait.
41If thou shouldst bring me back to life,
42 More humbled I should be;
43More wise, more strengthened for the strife,
44 More apt to lean on Thee.
45Should death be standing at the gate,
46 Thus should I keep my vow;
47But, Lord! whatever be my fate,
48 Oh, let me serve Thee now!
Notes
1] This is the Anne's last poem. Back to Line
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
2005
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