Poems By William Bell Scott. Ballads, Studies from Nature, Sonnets, etc. Illustrated by Seventeen Etchings by the Author and L. Alma Tadema |
 |
 |
|
| I. |
| II. | II |
| III. |
| IV. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 | Poems |  |
II
When the stricken child had thus confessed,
Humbly he crossed his hands on his breast,
Waiting. The abbot raised his eyen,
That closèd this half-hour had been,
And answered: ‘Thy name, Anthony,
Was once borne by a Saint; if so
It be with thee as with him, and mo',
Whom Jesu put in Satan's power
To bait them for a day and hour,
It doth behove thee back to go
Into thy hermitage again;
And if from grace thou art astray,
Anthony, gird thyself amain
With prayer and fast; this penance do,
And when thou vanquishest the foe,
Thou shalt rule, and I obey!’
Humbly he crossed his hands on his breast,
Waiting. The abbot raised his eyen,
That closèd this half-hour had been,
And answered: ‘Thy name, Anthony,
Was once borne by a Saint; if so
It be with thee as with him, and mo',
Whom Jesu put in Satan's power
To bait them for a day and hour,
It doth behove thee back to go
Into thy hermitage again;
And if from grace thou art astray,
Anthony, gird thyself amain
53
And when thou vanquishest the foe,
Thou shalt rule, and I obey!’
He turned about, but the kneeling man
Caught the skirt of his camlet and began
To wail like the stork in the fowler's hand:
‘Father! aught but this demand
Let me but live in the cenoby,
And penance day and night I'll dree;
Send me not to live alone—’
‘The will of God, my will be done!’
Querulously the old man cried,
And thrust the penitent aside.
Caught the skirt of his camlet and began
To wail like the stork in the fowler's hand:
‘Father! aught but this demand
Let me but live in the cenoby,
And penance day and night I'll dree;
Send me not to live alone—’
‘The will of God, my will be done!’
Querulously the old man cried,
And thrust the penitent aside.
| Poems | |