Invocation

I pray thee, Lord, to me impart Within my breast a conscious heart: Give me the vision to divine The rapture pulsing through the wine,

It never pleased me, to receive Another’s breath, that I might live: Give me a breath as light as morn, A sigh that in the home was born.

I am a torrent: do not set Me dribbling in a rivulet, But give my waters space to spill O’er valley broad and spreading hill.

Is it thy will to fashion me A rival to the boundless sea, Amid the tumult of the main Grant me the pearl’s repose to gain.

Thou had’st the falcon that I am Follow the leopard for his game: Give me high will, a sharper claw,

The small fowl of the Sanctuary I marked my precious prey to be: Grant me an arrow that, unsped, Unerring flies, and strikes them dead.

Illuminate my lifeless clay With anthems David used to play; Let all my atoms swiftly spring Upborne upon an ember’s wing.