| Henry Charles Beeching, ed. (1859–1919). Lyra Sacra: A Book of Religious Verse. 1903. | | | | Inconstancy | | By Thomas Toke Lynch (1818–1871) |
| | | OH, were I ever what I am sometimes, | |
| And never more what I sometimes have been; | |
| For oft my spirit, singing as it climbs, | |
| Can make of winter bleak a summer green: | |
| And yet sometimes, and in the sunniest weather, | 5 |
| My work and I have fallen out together. | |
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| Now earth seems drossy, heaven the land of gold, | |
| Anon heaven fabulous, substantial earth; | |
| And sometimes in my God I can be bold, | |
| And say, “What hopes are mine in right of birth?” | 10 |
| And yet sometimes at former faith I wonder, | |
| And fears I once defied I now sink under. | |
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| Lord, rid me of this natural waywardness, | |
| Unworthy one who is a child of thine; | |
| Calm let me be when rudest winds distress, | 15 |
| Nor lose occasion if the day be fine; | |
| But faithful to the light of sacred reason, | |
| One heart be mine in every changing season. | | | | |
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