Self-Deception

Say, what blinds us, that we claim the gloryOf possessing powers not our share?—Since man woke on earth, he knows his story;But, before we woke on earth, we were.

Long, long since, undowered yet, our spiritRoamed, ere birth, the treasuries of God;Saw the gifts, the powers it might inherit,Asked an outfit for its earthly road.

Then, as now, this tremulous, eager beingStrained and longed, and grasped each gift it saw;Then, as now, a Power beyond our seeingStaved us back, and gave our choice the law.

Ah! whose hand that day through heaven guidedMan's new spirit, since it was not we?Ah! who swayed our choice, and who decidedWhat our gifts and what our wants should be?

For, alas! he left us each retainingShreds of gifts which he refused in full;Still these waste us with their hopeless straining,Still the attempt to use them proves them null.

And on earth we wander, groping, reeling;Powers stir in us, stir and disappear.Ah! and he, who placed our master-feeling,Failed to place that master-feeling clear.

We but dream we have our wished-for powers;Ends we seek, we never shall attain.Ah! some power exists there, which is ours?Some end is there, we indeed may gain?