Some others but as firewood burn, or moulder on the plain.
What can the bough, to cope with axe’s severing edge?
Can bough resist, return the blow, as blacksmith’s sledge?
I call on Thy omnipotence! Thy axe withhold!
Thy mercy manifest! These wrongs set right! Behold!”215
Then to himself did Pharaoh think: “O wondrous thing!
All night I’ve prayed ‘Good Lord’ to heaven’s Almighty King!
In secret I’m humility, a very worm!
But when I Moses meet, how greatly changed my form!
Base coin, if tenfold gilded o’er with finest gold,