Read "The Prophet Lost in the Hills at Evening" by Hilaire Belloc online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
Strong God which made the topmost stars / To circulate and keep their course, / Remember me; whom all the bars / Of sense and dreadful fate enforce.
Above me in your heights and tall, / Impassable the summits freeze, / Below the haunted waters call / Impassable beyond the trees.
I hunger and I have no bread.
My gourd is empty of the wine.
Surely the footsteps of the dead / Are shuffling softly close to mine!
It darkens. I have lost the ford.
There is a change on all things made.
The rocks have evil faces, Lord, / And I am awfully afraid.
Remember me! the Voids of Hell / Expand enormous all around.
Strong friend of souls, Emmanuel, / Redeem me from accursed ground.
The long descent of wasted days, / To these at last have led me down; / Remember that I filled with praise / The meaningless and doubtful ways / That lead to an eternal town.
I challenged and I kept the Faith, / The bleeding path alone I trod; / It darkens. Stand about my wraith, / And harbour me -- almighty God!