Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
England: Vols. I–IV. 1876–79. | | | | Worcester | | Miserrimus | | William Wordsworth (1770–1850) |
| | A Gravestone upon the Floor in the Cloisters of Worcester Cathedral |
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“MISERRIMUS!” and neither name nor date, | |
| Prayer, text, or symbol, graven upon the stone; | |
| Naught but that word assigned to the unknown, | |
| That solitary word,—to separate | |
| From all, and cast a cloud around the fate | 5 |
| Of him who lies beneath. Most wretched one, | |
| Who chose his epitaph?—Himself alone | |
| Could thus have dared the grave to agitate, | |
| And claim among the dead this awful crown; | |
| Nor doubt that he marked also for his own | 10 |
| Close to these cloistral steps a burial-place, | |
| That every foot might fall with heavier tread, | |
| Trampling upon his vileness. Stranger, pass | |
| Softly!—To save the contrite, Jesus bled. | | | |
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