A felon’s cell? O the disgrace of it!—
The scandal, the incredible come-down!
It masters me. I see i’ my mind’s eye
The public prints—“Sharp Sentence on a Monk!”
What then? I thought I was of sterner stuff
Than is affrighted by what people think.
Yet thought I so because ’twas thought of me;
And so ’twas thought of me because I had
A hawk-like profile and a baleful eye.
Lo! my soul’s chin recedes, soft to the touch