234. THE BELL-MAN

Along the dark and silent night,

With my lantern and my light

And the tinkling of my bell,

Thus I walk, and this I tell:

--Death and dreadfulness call on

To the general session;

To whose dismal bar, we there

All accounts must come to clear:

Scores of sins we've made here many;

Wiped out few, God knows, if any.

Rise, ye debtors, then, and fall

To make payment, while I call:

Ponder this, when I am gone:

--By the clock 'tis almost One.

A Selection from the Lyrical Poems of Robert Herrick · 第 245 / 269 题