| |
| SAD, purple well! Whose bubbling eye | |
| Did first against a murd’rer cry; | |
| Whose streams, still vocal, still complain | |
| Of bloody Cain: | |
| And now at evening are as red | 5 |
| As in the morning when first shed. | |
| If single thou | |
| —Though single voices are but low,— | |
| Couldst such a shrill and long cry rear | |
| As speaks still in thy Maker’s ear, | 10 |
| What thunders shall those men arraign | |
| Who cannot count those they have slain, | |
| Who bathe not in a shallow flood, | |
| But in a deep, wide sea of blood? | |
| A sea, whose loud waves cannot sleep, | 15 |
| But deep still calleth upon deep: | |
| Whose urgent sound, like unto that | |
| Of many waters, beateth at | |
| The everlasting doors above, | |
| Where souls behind the altar move, | 20 |
| And with one strong, incessant cry | |
| Inquire, ‘How long?’ of the Most High. | |
| Almighty Judge! | |
| At Whose just laws no just men grudge; | |
| Whose blessed, sweet commands do pour | 25 |
| Comforts, and joys, and hopes each hour | |
| On those that keep them; O accept | |
| Of his vow’d heart, whom Thou hast kept | |
| From bloody men! and grant, I may | |
| That sworn memorial duly pay | 30 |
| To Thy bright arm, which was my light | |
| And leader through thick death and night! | |
| Ay! may that flood, | |
| That proudly spilt and despis’d blood, | |
| Speechless and calm, as infant’s sleep! | 35 |
| Or if it watch, forgive and weep | |
| For those that spilt it! May no cries | |
| From the low Earth to high Heaven rise, | |
| But what,—like His whose blood peace brings— | |
| Shall—when they rise—‘speak better things’ | 40 |
| Than Abel’s doth! May Abel be | |
| Still single heard, while these agree | |
| With His mild blood in voice and will | |
| Who pray’d for those that did Him kill! | |
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