Mary Stuart’s Prayer
Of the English versions of the prayer of Mary, Queen of Scots, two of the best are as follows. The first is from Swinburne’s tragedy, “Mary Stuart”:
O Lord, my God,
I have trusted in Thee;
O Jesu, my dearest One,
Now set me free.
In prison’s oppression,
In sorrow’s obsession,
I weary for Thee.
With sighing and crying,
Bowed down in dying.
I adore Thee, I implore Thee, set me free.
The next has been attributed to Denis Florence McCarthy, an Irish poet:
Lord God, all my hope is
In Thee, only Thee!
O Jesu, my Saviour,
Now liberate me!
In chains that have bound me,
In pains that surround me,
Still longing for Thee;
Here kneeling, appealing,
My misery feeling,
Adoring, imploring,
Oh, liberate me!