Here never languish honest men and true,
Except by placemen’s fraud, misgovernment, '
' Jealousies, anger, or some spiteful crew.
To tell the truth whereon my mind is bent,
Here man knows God, nor ever stints to pray,
Feeling his soul with hell’s fierce anguish rent. '
'Let one be famed as bad as mortal may,
Send him in jail two sorry years to pine,
He’ll come forth holy, wise, beloved alway.'
'Here soul, flesh, clothes their substance gross refine;
Each bulky lout grows light like gossamere;
Celestial thrones before purged eyeballs shine.
I’ll tell thee a great marvel! Friend, give ear! '
' The fancy took me on one day to write:
Learn now what shifts one may be put to here.
My cell I search, prick brows and hair upright,
Then turn me toward a cranny in the door, '
' And with my teeth a splinter disunite;
Next find a piece of brick upon the floor,
Crumble a part thereof to powder small,
And form a paste by sprinkling water o’er. [2] '
'Then, then came Poesy with fiery call
Into my carcass, by the way methought
Whence bread goes forth-there was none else at all.
'
'Now to return unto my primal thought:
Who wills to know what weal awaits him, must
First learn the ill that God for him hath wrought.
The jail contains all arts in act and trust; '
' Should you but hanker after surgeon’s skill,
’Twill draw the spoiled blood from your veins adust.
Next there is something in itself that will
Make you right eloquent, a bold brave spark, '
' Big with high-soaring thoughts for good and ill.