| W. Garrett Horder, comp. The Poets’ Bible: New Testament. 1895. | | | | For the Baptiste | | William Drummond of Hawthornden (1585–1649) |
| | | THE LAST and greatest herald of heaven’s King, | |
| Girt with rough skins, hies to the desart wild; | |
| Among that savage brood the woods forth bring, | |
| Which he more harmless found than man, and mild. | |
| His food was locusts, and what there doth spring, | 5 |
| With honey that from virgin hives distill’d: | |
| Parch’d body, hollow eyes, some uncouth thing | |
| Made him appear, long since from earth exil’d. | |
| There burst he forth. ‘All ye whose hopes rely | |
| On God, with me amidst these desarts mourn; | 10 |
| Repent, repent, and from old errors turn.’ | |
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| Who listen’d to his voice, obey’d his cry? | |
| Only the Echoes, which he made relent, | |
| Rung from their flinty caves ‘Repent, repent.’ | | | | |
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