[Lyric] Penitence (Jennie Porter Arnold)

Life is too short, dear love, for unkind feeling,
Too short for harsh reproach, or bitter tone;
For us should be but gentle words alone:
If I have wronged you, dear, here let me kneeling
Low at your side—in penitence appealing—
Seek pardon for a fault I had not known,
Save that my love for you so strong had grown
It passed the bounds of reason's wise concealing.
Dear love, by all our past of untold gladness,
By every loving word and fond caress
Which filled our lives with such sweet happiness,
Forgive, forget that one brief hour of madness;
Then may you know the highest joy of living,—
The God-like peace, the sweetness of forgiving.