Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, PECCAVI, by PHOEBE CARY


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

PECCAVI, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: I have sinned, I have sinned, before thee
Last Line: My god, be thou love!
Subject(s): God


I HAVE sinned, I have sinned, before thee, the Most Holy!
And I come as a penitent, bowing down lowly,
With my lips making freely their awful admission,
And mine eyes raining bitterest tears of contrition;
And I cry unto thee, with my mouth in the dust:
O God! be not just!

O God! be not just; but be merciful rather, --
Let me see not the face of my Judge but my Father:
A sinner, a culprit, I stand self-convicted,
Yet the pardoning power is thine unrestricted;
I am weak; thou art strong: in thy goodness and might,
Let my sentence be light!

I have turned from all gifts which thy kindness supplied me,
Because of the one which thy wisdom denied me;
I have bandaged mine eyes -- yea, mine own hands have bound me;
I have made me a darkness, when light was around me:
And I cry by the way-side: O Lord that I might
Receive back my sight!

For the sake of my guilt, may my guilt be forgiven,
And because mine iniquities mount unto heaven!
Let my sins, which are crimson, be snow in their brightness;
Let my sins, which are scarlet, be wool in their whiteness.
I am out of the way, and my soul is dismayed --
I am lost, and afraid.

I have sinned, and against Him whose justice may doom me;
Insulted his power whose wrath can consume me:
Yet, by that blest name by which angels adore Him --
That name through which mortals may dare come before Him --
I come, saying only, My Father above,
My God, be thou Love!





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