The Fool's Prayer

[B/W Photodude]

Thomas R. Lounsbury, ed. (1838–1915). Yale Book of American Verse.  1912.
 
Edward Rowland Sill. 1841–1887
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Rowland_Sill
 
206. The Fool's Prayer
 
THE ROYAL feast was done; the King     
  Sought some new sport to banish care,     
And to his jester cried: "Sir Fool,     
  Kneel now, and make for us a prayer!"     
  
The jester doffed his cap and bells,             5
  And stood the mocking court before;     
They could not see the bitter smile     
  Behind the painted grin he wore.     
  
He bowed his head, and bent his knee     
  Upon the monarch's silken stool;      10
His pleading voice arose: "O Lord,     
  Be merciful to me, a fool!     
  
"No pity, Lord, could change the heart     
  From red with wrong to white as wool;     
The rod must heal the sin: but, Lord,      15
  Be merciful to me, a fool!     
  
"'T is not by guilt the onward sweep     
  Of truth and right, O Lord, we stay;     
'T is by our follies that so long     
  We hold the earth from heaven away.      20
  
"These clumsy feet, still in the mire,     
  Go crushing blossoms without end;     
These hard, well-meaning hands we thrust     
  Among the heart-strings of a friend.     
  
"The ill-timed truth we might have kept—      25
  Who knows how sharp it pierced and stung?     
The word we had not sense to say—     
  Who knows how grandly it had rung?     
  
"Our faults no tenderness should ask,     
  The chastening stripes must cleanse them all;      30
But for our blunders—oh, in shame     
  Before the eyes of heaven we fall.     
  
"Earth bears no balsam for mistakes;     
  Men crown the knave, and scourge the tool     
That did his will; but Thou, O Lord,      35
  Be merciful to me, a fool!"     
  
The room was hushed; in silence rose     
  The King, and sought his gardens cool,     
And walked apart, and murmured low,     
  "Be merciful to me, a fool!"      40
  
Came across a quote from this poem (bold texted) in "Thoughts from the Mount of Blessings" and couldn't resist tracking down the source of the quote. It seems that Ellen White was given to reading poetry. (I recently posted another quote tracked down from "Thoughts from the Mount of Blessings".