C.D. Warner, et al., comp. The Library of the World’s Best Literature.
An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.

Conscious of his Folly, he Prays God to Turn him to a Better Life

“Padre del ciel, dopo i perduti giorni”

Translation of Barbarina, Lady Dacre

FATHER of heaven! after days misspent,

After the nights of wild tumultuous thought,

In that fierce passion’s strong entanglement,

One, for my peace too lovely fair, had wrought:

Vouchsafe that by thy grace, my spirit, bent

On nobler aims, to holier ways be brought;

That so my Foe, spreading with dark intent

His mortal snares, be foiled, and held at naught.

E’en now th’ eleventh year its course fulfills,

That I have bowed me to the tyranny

Relentless most to fealty most tried.

Have mercy, Lord! on my unworthy ills;

Fix all my thoughts in contemplation high,—

How on the cross this day a Saviour died.