Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Italy: Vols. XI–XIII. 1876–79. | | | | Rome, Churches of | | Christmas Night in St. Peter’s | | Helen Hunt Jackson (1830–1885) |
| | | LOW on the marble floor I lie: | |
| I am alone: | |
| Though friendly voices whisper nigh, | |
| And foreign crowds are passing by, | |
| I am alone. | 5 |
| Great hymns float through | |
| The shadowed aisles. I hear a slow | |
| Refrain, “Forgive them, for they know | |
| Not what they do.” | |
| |
| With tender joy all others thrill; | 10 |
| I have but tears: | |
| The false priests’ voices, high and shrill, | |
| Reiterate the “Peace, good-will”; | |
| I have but tears. | |
| I hear anew | 15 |
| The nails and scourge; then come the low, | |
| Sad words, “Forgive them, for they know | |
| Not what they do.” | |
| |
| Close by my side the poor souls kneel; | |
| I turn away; | 20 |
| Half-pitying looks at me they steal; | |
| They think, because I do not feel, | |
| I turn away. | |
| Ah! if they knew, | |
| How following them, where’er they go, | 25 |
| I hear, “Forgive them, for they know | |
| Not what they do.” | |
| |
| Above the organ’s sweetest strains | |
| I hear the groans | |
| Of prisoners, who lie in chains, | 30 |
| So near, and in such mortal pains, | |
| I hear the groans. | |
| But Christ walks through | |
| The dungeons of St. Angelo, | |
| And says, “Forgive them, for they know | 35 |
| Not what they do.” | |
| |
| And now the music sinks to sighs; | |
| The lights grow dim: | |
| The Pastorella’s melodies | |
| In lingering echoes float and rise; | 40 |
| The lights grow dim; | |
| More clear and true, | |
| In this sweet silence seem to flow | |
| The words, “Forgive them, for they know | |
| Not what they do.” | 45 |
| |
| The dawn swings incense, silver gray; | |
| The night is past; | |
| Now comes, triumphant, God’s full day; | |
| No priest, no church can bar its way: | |
| The night is past; | 50 |
| How on this blue | |
| Of God’s great banner, blaze and glow | |
| The words, “Forgive them, for they know | |
| Not what they do!” | | | | |
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