24

Mourning and Longing

I

The Saviour hides his face!
My spirit thirsts to prove
Renew’d supplies of pard’ning grace,
And never-fading love.

II

The favour’d souls who know
What glories shine in him
Pant for his presence, as the roe
Pants for the living stream.

III

What trifles tease me now!
They swarm like summer flies,
They cleave to every thing I do,
And swim before my eyes.

IV

How dull the Sabbath-day,
Without the Sabbath’s Lord!
How toilsome then to sing and pray
And wait upon the word?

V

Of all the truths I hear,
How few delight my taste!
I glean a berry here and there,
But mourn the vintage past.

VI

Yet let me (as I ought)
Still hope to be supplied;
No pleasure else is worth a thought,
Nor shall I be denied.

VII

Though I am but a worm,
Unworthy of his care,
The Lord will my desire perform,
And grant me all my pray’r.

Where this text comes from

First published in Olney Hymns (1779). First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established. [1] [2] [3]

Structure read from the source's markup; the words have not been compared against a page scan. Last checked 2026-08-15.

Taken from Standard Ebooks, standardebooks/john-newton_william-cowper_olney-hymns, book-3.xhtml. Rights: public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931).

Earlier sources (2)

This poem as JSON or plain text. Line anchors #L1–#L28.

Cite this poem

William Cowper (1731–1800). “Mourning and Longing.” First published in Olney Hymns (1779). Text: Poem Index, https://poemindex.org/william-cowper/mourning-and-longing/. Append #L14 to cite line 14, or #L4-L9 for lines 4–9.

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