Alfred, Lord Tennyson: In Memoriam, Prologue

Prologue
Strong Son of God, immortal Love,
whom we, that have not seen thy face,
by faith, and faith alone, embrace,
believing where we cannot prove;

Thine are these orbs of light and shade;
Thou madest Life in man and brute;
Thou madest Death; and lo, thy foot
is on the skull which thou hast made.

Thou wilt not leave us in the dust;
Thou madest man, he knows not why,
he thinks he was not made to die;
And thou hast made him: thou art just.

Thou seemest human and divine,
the highest, holiest manhood, thou.
Our wills are ours, we know not how;
Our wills are ours, to make them thine.

Our little systems have their day;
They have their day and cease to be;
They are but broken lights of thee,
and thou, O Lord, art more than they.

We have but faith: we cannot know,
for knowledge is of things we see;
And yet we trust it comes from thee,
a beam in darkness: let it grow.

Let knowledge grow from more to more,
but more of reverence in us dwell;
That mind and soul, according well,
may make one music as before,

but vaster. We are fools and slight;
We mock thee when we do not fear:
But help thy folish ones to bear;
Help thy vain worlds to bear thy light.

Forgive what seemed my sin in me,
what seemed my worth since I began;
For merit lives from man to man,
and not from man, O Lord, to thee.

Forgive my grief for one removed,
thy creature, whom I found so fair.
I trust he lives in thee, and there
I find him worthier to be loved.

Forgive these wild and wandering cries,
confusions of a wasted youth;
Forgive them where they fail in truth,
and in thy wisdom make me wise.
(Alfred, Lord Tennyson)

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