I Know Not

Holy God, where are You-Whom I fail to find

Although laboriously I probe and search?

Wrapt in a dense obscurity, I am blind;

And when I pray, I enter in the church.

Doubts in the centre of my spirit dwell

Whose harsh accent my bitter grief revives.

The mollusk is happier far than man; the shell

Oppresses it-and yet within it lives.

Yet life I dare not shorten, since I see-

Mute, sad, mysterious-the narrow grave,

And the certain riddle with a hidden key.

Shadows behind, before me-all about me.

Everywhere shadows, within me and without me-

Even in Your temple with its shadowy nave!