Richard Chenevix Trench (1807-1886). Poems. II. "This did not once so trouble me." Alfred H. Miles, ed. 1907. The Sacred Poets of the Nineteenth Century

Alfred H. Miles, ed. The Sacred Poets of the Nineteenth Century. 1907.

Poems.
II. “This did not once so trouble me”

By Richard Chenevix Trench (1807–1886)


THIS did not once so trouble me,
That better I could not love Thee;
But now I feel and know
That only when we love, we find
How far our hearts remain behind	5
The love they should bestow.

While we had little care to call
On Thee, and scarcely prayed at all,
We seemed enough to pray:
But now we only think with shame,	10
How seldom to Thy glorious Name
Our lips their offerings pay.

And when we gave yet slighter heed
Unto our brother’s suffering need,
Our hearts reproached us then	15
Not half so much as now, that we
With such a careless eye can see
The woes and wants of men.

In doing is this knowledge won,
To see what yet remains undone;	20
With this our pride repress,
And give us grace, a growing store,
That day by day we may do more,
And may esteem it less.