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 | The Poetical Works of Aubrey De Vere |  |
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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 | |