Now had the great Proclaimer, with a voice

More awful than the sound of trumpet, cried

Repentance, and Heaven’s kingdom nigh at hand

To all baptized: to his great baptism flocked

With awe, the regions round, and with them came

From Nazareth, the Son of Joseph deemed,

To the flood Jordan, came as then obscure,

Unmarked, unknown: but him the Baptist soon

Descried, divinely warned; and witness bore

As to his worthier, and would have resigned