By violence laid waste,

Perish without reprieve for flower or tree![93]

VI

A crouching purpose—a distracted will—

Opposed to hopes that battened upon scorn,

And to desires whose ever-waxing horn

Not all the light of earthly power could fill;

Opposed to dark, deep plots of patient skill,

And to[94] celerities of lawless force;

Which, spurning God, had flung away remorse—