In vain, while dark affliction spreads

Representative Text

In vain, while dark affliction spreads
Her melancholy gloom,
Kind providence its blessings sheds
And nature's beauties bloom.

For all that charms the taste or sight
My heart no wish respires;
O for a beam of heavenly light
When earthly hope expires.

Thou only center of my rest,
Look down with pitying eye,
While with protracted pain opprest
I breathe the plaintive sigh.

Thy gracious presence, O my God,
My every wish contains,
With this, beneath affliction's load
My heart no more complains.

This can my every care controul,
Gild each dark scene with light;
This is the sunshine of the soul,
Without it all is night.

My Lord, my life, O cheer my heart
With thy reviving ray,
And bid these mournful shades depart
And bring the dawn of day!

O happy scenes of pure delight!
Where thy full beams impart
Unclouded beauty to the sight
And rapture to the heart.

Her part in those fair realms of bliss
My spirit longs to know:
My wishes terminate in this,
Nor can they rest below.

Lord, shall the breathings of my heart
Aspire in vain to thee?
Confirm my hope, that where thou art
I shall for ever be.

Then shall my cheerful spirit sing
The darksome hours away,
And rise on Faith's expanded wing
To everlasting day.

Source: Miscellaneous Pieces in Verse and Prose #65

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Author: Anne Steele

Anne Steele was the daughter of Particular Baptist preacher and timber merchant William Steele. She spent her entire life in Broughton, Hampshire, near the southern coast of England, and devoted much of her time to writing. Some accounts of her life portray her as a lonely, melancholy invalid, but a revival of research in the last decade indicates that she had been more active and social than what was previously thought. She was theologically conversant with Dissenting ministers and "found herself at the centre of a literary circle that included family members from various generations, as well as local literati." She chose a life of singleness to focus on her craft. Before Christmas in 1742, she declined a marriage proposal from contemporar… Go to person page >

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