For all the error dark and deep,
Father, forgive: I did not know
That this existence was a sleep
In which the shadows come and go.
I did not know that grief and pain,
Those old-time chasteners named "the rod,"
Can no dominion hold again
Over the happy child of God.
I did not know the tears and lies
I took for truth were only dreams;
I took for real the subtleties
With which the shifting vision teems.
Forgive! If now to Thee I lift
My face, like to a fleckless glass,
Through the illumined heavenly rift
Let Thy reflection fall and pass.
As Thou created them to be,
From henceforth then all things shall seem,
And my enraptured eyes shall see
Beyond the dream—beyond the dream!
