<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="center" class="head">Distraction</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line"><span class="smallcaps">When</span> swarms of small distractions harry</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Devotion like the gnats that fly</p><p class="line">Till prayers are cold and customary,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Not such as please Thee, Heaven-high.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">When I forget for all my striving</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Thy presence holy and august,</p><p class="line">Be Thou not angry, but forgiving</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">To her Thou madest from the dust.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Say to Thyself: This mortal being,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">So deaf, so blind, so prone to sin,</p><p class="line">Has glimpses of Me without seeing</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">The places where the nails went in.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Say: Through the crusts of earth, My creature</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Perceives Me, hails Me Lord above;</p><p class="line">Rumours of the lost innocence reach her,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">With full assurance of My love.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Say: Of all marvels I have fashioned</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Is none more wonderful and new</p><p class="line">As that this thing should go impassioned</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">For heights beyond her mortal view.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">What though her mind should play and ponder</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">On small things meet for such as she!</p><p class="line">O love! O loyalty! O wonder!</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">That in the darkness gropes for Me.</p></div></body></html> · Great War