Kyrielle*

A Lenten Hymn
by Thomas Campion

With broken heart and contrite sigh,

A trembling sinner, Lord, I cry:

Thy pard’ning grace is rich and free:

O God, be merciful to me.

I smite upon my troubled breast,

With deep and conscious guilt oppress,

Christ and His cross my only plea:

O God, be merciful to me.

Far off I stand with tearful eyes,

Nor dare uplift them to the skies;

But Thou dost all my anguish see:

O God, be merciful to me.

Nor alms, nor deeds that I have done,

Can for a single sin atone;

To Calvary alone I flee:

O God, be merciful to me.

And when, redeemed from sin and hell,

With all the ransomed throng I dwell,

My raptured song shall ever be,

God has been merciful to me.

*I have to admit, I'm quite taken with this "new" form. By new, I mean it's new to me. It apparently originated in French troubadour poetry. Isn't "kyrielle" a pleasing term, as if it could be a name and not merely a literary form? It does look and sound a little like my first name, "Coryell(e)." But what most endears the kyrielle to me is that it, as a name and a form, originates in the liturgical prayer entreating the Lord's mercy, the kyrie eleison. For "it is of the LORD's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not" (Lam. 3:22).

Image: Window, Haworth Parish Church, North Yorkshire