A Father of Women

et unanswered question urge.
But the unjust stricken; but the hands that kill

Lopped; but the merited scourge;

"The sensualist at fast;
The merciless felled; the liar in his snares.
The cowardice of my judgment sees, aghast,

The flail, the chaff, the tares."

THE LORD'S PRAYER

"_Audemus dicere_ '_Pater Noster_.'"--CANON OF THE MASS.

There is a bolder way,
There is a wilder enterprise than this
All-human iteration day by day.
Courage, mankind! Restore Him what is His.

Out of His mouth were given
These phrases. O replace them whence they came.
He, only, knows our inconceivable "Heaven,"
Our hidden "Father," and the unspoken "Name";

Our "trespasses," our "bread,"
The "will" inexorable yet implored;
The miracle-words that are and are not said,
Charged with the unknown purpose of their Lord.

"Forgive," "give," "lead us not"--
Speak them by Him, O man the unaware,
Speak by that dear