Read "A Pagan Prayer" by Virna Sheard online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
Lord of all Life! When my hours are done, / Take me and make me anew -- / And give me back to the earth and the sun, / And the sky's unlimited blue.
The nightingale sings in an ecstasy / To the moonlit April night, / But my songs are locked in the heart of me, / Like birds that may not take flight.
The little purple-winged swallows that fly / Through waves of the upper air, / Have a sweeter liberty, Lord, than I, / Who may not follow them there.
Pavilions of sunshine -- tents of the rain, / For these, the wild and the free; / And for us walled garden and window-pane, / And bolt and staple and key.
We are worn with wisdom that never brings / Peace to the world and its woe -- / For a space with Thy joyous lesser things, / Teach me the faith I would know.