@3Enter the Usurer@1 solus @3with a halter in one hand, a dagger in the other@1. Groaning in conscience, burdened with my crimes, The hell of sorrow haunts me up and down; Tread where I list, methinks the bleeding ghosts Of those whom my corruption brought to nought, Do serve for stumbling-blocks before my steps; The fatherless and widow wronged by me, The poor oppressèd by my usury; Methinks I see their hands rear'd up to heaven, To cry for vengeance of my covetousness. Whereso I walk, all sigh and shun my way; Thus I am made a monster of the world; Hell gapes for me, heaven will not hold my soul. You mountains, shroud me from the God of truth; Methinks I see Him sit to judge the earth; See how He blots me out of the book of life: Oh burden more than Ætna, that I bear. Cover me, hills, and shroud me from the Lord; Swallow me, Lycus, shield me from the Lord. In life no peace; each murmuring that I hear Methinks the sentence of damnation sounds, 'Die, reprobate, and hie thee hence to hell.' | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...HOME-THOUGHTS, FROM ABROAD by ROBERT BROWNING MERSA by KEITH CASTELLAINE DOUGLAS THE OWL CRITIC by JAMES THOMAS FIELDS JOHN BROWN'S BODY by CHARLES SPRAGUE HALL PICTURES FROM APPLEDORE: 5 by JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL SING-SONG; A NURSERY RHYME BOOK: 45 by CHRISTINA GEORGINA ROSSETTI UNDERWOODS: BOOK 2: 16. THE DEAREST FRIENDS ARE THE AULDEST FRIENDS by ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON |