This painless life has been too little blest,
Too little in true suffering immersed—
Of all disease is comfort not the worst,
For one who seeks a cause, a cross, a quest?
Yet one who treads the road of holiness
Leans perilously near a brink accurs’d:
For vampire-slayers oft are bitten first,
And exorcists are oftenest possessed.
But still—but still—may not a man risk all,
If only to escape tepidity?
Ah, Father, let me climb and dare the fall,
Though I myself soon beg surcease of Thee!
Let me be tested, even if I call
Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?
