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42
THE HOSPITAL
With pain-shut eyes I lay,
Wishing yet dreading day
That with strange pangs untold
Should come, my frame to rack in a new way,
And powerless to free
Myself, despairingly,
"From the body of this death,"
I moaned, "Who shall deliver me?"
Then, all my pulses stirred,
Awed and amazed, I heard—
Uttered with calming breath
Distinct and clear, apart from me—a word,
In far Judaea taught,
That instant freedom brought,—
Winging my soul's escape
Through the blest miracle of heavenly thought.
And in the dreaming dawn,
Waiting, all fear withdrawn,
I knew the coward Shape
From out my life forevermore was gone.
