Poems (Hazlett-Bevis)/Forgiven
For works with similar titles, see Forgiven.
Forgiven.
'Neath lambent lights, where all is sweet perfume,
Where purest fragrance from rare flowers exhume,
A women lies, in costly casket, fair
As poet's dream, and in her golden hair
Gleam dewey pearls, and bands of gold,
And jewels on her hands so cold
And white, and none would ever pause and think
To see her lying thus so fair and sweet, a link
From other lives was gone, while she tread earth
That echoed with her mocking mirth.
But list! A priest comes forth, she has been shriven;
Ere yet she died, her sins were all forgiven.
Where purest fragrance from rare flowers exhume,
A women lies, in costly casket, fair
As poet's dream, and in her golden hair
Gleam dewey pearls, and bands of gold,
And jewels on her hands so cold
And white, and none would ever pause and think
To see her lying thus so fair and sweet, a link
From other lives was gone, while she tread earth
That echoed with her mocking mirth.
But list! A priest comes forth, she has been shriven;
Ere yet she died, her sins were all forgiven.