Thou Art Indeed Just

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Justus quidem tu es, Domine, si disputem tecum; verumtamen justa loquar ad
te: quare via impiorum prosperatur? |&c.| (Jerem. xii 1.)
Thou art indeed just, Lord, if I contend
  With thee; but, sir, so what I plead is just.
  Why do sinners' ways prosper? and why must
Disappointment all I endeavour end?
Wert thou my enemy, O thou my friend,
  How wouldst thou worse, I wonder, than thou dost
  Defeat, thwart me? Oh, the sots and thralls of lust
Do in spare hours more thrive than I that spend,

Sir, life upon thy cause. See, banks and brakes
  Now, leav{`e}d how thick! lac{`e}d they are again
With fretty chervil, look, and fresh wind shakes
  Them; birds build - but not I build; no, but strain,
Time's eunuch, and not breed one work that wakes.
  Mine, O thou lord of life, send my roots rain.

© Gerard Manley Hopkins