13There is a bad-fortune
that I saw under the sun:
wealth kept by its owner
to their bad-fortune,
14and that wealth perished
through a bad business;
and they had a child
but there’s nothing in their hand.
15As they left their mother’s womb,
naked they again go,
(as they came);
they carried nothing of their labour
in their hand when they went
16This too is bad-fortune.
As they came, so they went,
and what’s the value to them
that they laboured for the wind?
17Further, all their days
in darkness
they eat
with much anger,
with illness, and fury.
O Lord, in whom is our hope,
remove far from us, we pray thee,
empty hopes and presumptuous confidence.
Make our hearts so right with thy most holy and loving heart,
that hoping in thee we may do good;
until that day when faith and hope
shall be abolished by sight and possession,
and love shall be all in all.
Christina Rossetti (1830-94)