English Poetry I: From Chaucer to Gray.
The Harvard Classics. 1909–14. |
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| 199. For the Magdalene |
| | | William Drummond (1585–1649) |
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| ‘THESE eyes, dear Lord, once brandons of desire, | |
| Frail scouts betraying what they had to keep, | |
| Which their own heart, then others set on fire, | |
| Their trait’rous black before thee here out-weep; | |
| These locks, of blushing deeds the gilt attire, | 5 |
| Waves curling, wrackful shelves to shadow deep, | |
| Rings wedding souls to sin’s lethargic sleep, | |
| To touch thy sacred feet do now aspire. | |
| In seas of care behold a sinking bark, | |
| By winds of sharp remorse unto thee driven, | 10 |
| O let me not be Ruin’s aim’d-at-mark! | |
| My faults confessed, Lord, say they are forgiven.’ | |
| Thus sighed to Jesus the Bethanian fair, | |
| His tear-wet feet still drying with her hair. | |
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