IV.

Oh! my black soul! now thou art summoned

By sickness, death's herald and champion,

Thou 'rt like a pilgrim which abroad hath done

Treason, and durst not turn to whence he is fled;

Or like a thief, which, till death's doom be read,

Wisheth himself delivered from prison;

But damn'd, and haul'd to execution,

Wisheth that still he might be imprisoned:

Yet grace, if thou repent, thou canst not lack;

But who shall give thee that grace to begin?

Oh! make thyself with holy mourning black,

And red with blushing, as thou art with sin;

Or wash thee in Christ's blood, which hath this might,

That, being red, it dyes red souls to white.

Specimens with Memoirs of the Less-known British Poets, Volume 1 · 第 195 / 326 题