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Home  »  The Poetical Works In Four Volumes  »  A Fragment: “The dreadful burden of our sins we feel”

John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–1892). The Poetical Works in Four Volumes. 1892.

Appendix II. Poems Printed in the ‘Life of Whittier’

A Fragment: “The dreadful burden of our sins we feel”

  • [Found among Mr. Whittier’s papers, in his handwriting, but undated.]


  • THE DREADFUL burden of our sins we feel,

    The pain of wounds which Thou alone canst heal,

    To whom our weakness is our strong appeal.

    From the black depths, the ashes, and the dross

    Of our waste lives, we reach out to Thy cross,

    And by its fullness measure all our loss!

    That holy sign reveals Thee: throned above

    No Moloch sits, no false, vindictive Jove—

    Thou art our Father, and Thy name is Love!