Otto Bohanan, "God Gave Us Song" (1918)
And bade us fill the world with tears
Of Happiness; when days were long,
To make a melody of fears.
God gave us the power to feel
The joy of passions exquisite,
Courage to suffer, and the zeal
Of yearning for the infinite.
God gave us the strength to die,
To follow through the dark agrope,
A stretch of dreary, rimless sky--
God gave us the boon of hope.
Published in The Crisis, September 1918