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 | The Poetical Works of Aubrey De Vere |  |
395
VII. THE ‘MISERERE’ IN THE SISTINE CHAPEL.
From sadness on to sadness, woe to woe,Searching all depths of grief ineffable,
Those sighs of the Forsaken sink and swell
And to a piercing shrillness gathering, grow.
Now one by one, commingling now, they flow:
Now in the dark they die, a piteous knell,
Lorn as the wail of exiled Israel
Or Hagar weeping o'er her outcast. No—
Never hath loss external forced such sighs!
O ye with secret sins that inly bleed
And drift from God, search out if ye are wise
Your unrepented infelicities:
And pray, whate'er the punishment decreed,
It prove not exile from your Maker's eyes!
| The Poetical Works of Aubrey De Vere | |