Page:Poems Frances Elizabeth Browne.djvu/37

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29

L'AMENDE HONORABLE.
Accept the thanks which my poor pen affords,
For the perusal of your charming pages;
From a sick bed they 'll needs be burning words,
But fear them not, no baleful sickness rages.

Here, stretched at length,—I cannot say at ease,—
Philosophizing over oatmeal-gruel,
Like sick man in the fable, conscience sees
Sins rise before me in array most cruel.

Confession, then, and reparation too,
The genuine symptoms of sincere repentance,
I offer, Sir, unfeignedly, to you!
Sins against charity deserve this sentence.