Last Confessional

Last Confessional written by John Drinkwater

Swords and Ploughshares, 1915

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FOR all ill words that I have spoken,
For all clear moods that I have broken,
For all despite and hasty breath,
Forgive me, Love, forgive me, Death.

Death, master of the great assize,
Love, falling now to memories,
You two alone I need to prove.
Forgive me, Death, forgive me, Love.

For every tenderness undone,
For pride when holiness was none
But only easy charity,
O Death, be pardoner to me.

For stubborn thought that would not make
Measure of love's thought for love's sake,
But kept a sullen difference.
Take, Love, this laggard penitence.

For cloudy words too vainly spent
To prosper but in argument.
When truth stood lonely at the gate,
On your compassion. Death, I wait.

This work is in the public domain in countries where the copyright term is the author's life plus 70 years or less.