IN Adam's sin
Did I begin.

With toil and sweat
My bread I get;

At once, with Abel
Spread my table,

Rebel with Cain
And sin again.

O'er all the earth,
(Which is my birth),

I joy to find
My human kind;

Read in the sky
That I must die,

Yet needs must sing
When it is spring.

And though I run
Before the sun,

By autumn brought
To steady thought,

I still rehearse
The primal curse,

And in the snow
Confess my woe.

Yet here apart,
Deep in my heart,

Kin to the sod
I wait for God.