Great Regulars: But the human struggle to believe

this is not the case is captured in the closing rhyme: although we are part of an insensible, unredeemable Nature that cannot be "shriven", it is the attempt to keep faith with "the dead/And the dying" for which we are "forgiven"', a word thrown up with the random contingency of a piece of driftwood--and the magnificent inevitability of divine purpose.

G.M.B.
(10.7.77)

from The Times Literary Supplement: Poem of the Week: G. M. B.

~~~~~~~~~~~