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Home  »  library  »  Song  »  Dora Read Goodale (1866–1953)

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

Dora Read Goodale (1866–1953)

The Judgment

THOU hast done evil

And given place to the Devil;

Yet so cunningly thou concealest

The thing which thou feelest,

That no eye espieth it,—

Satan himself denieth it:

Go where it chooseth thee,

There is none that accuseth thee;

Neither foe nor lover

Will the wrong uncover;

The world’s breath raiseth thee,

And thy own past praiseth thee.

Yet know thou this:

At quick of thy being

Is an eye, all seeing,

The snake’s wit evadeth not,

The charmed lip persuadeth not:

So thoroughly it despiseth

The thing thy hand prizeth,

Though the sun were thy clothing,

It should count thee for nothing.

Thine own eye divineth thee;

Thine own soul arraigneth thee:

God himself cannot shrive thee

Till that judge forgive thee.