Page:A channel passage and other poems (IA channelpassageot00swinrich).pdf/192

II

A velvet vice with springs of steel

That fasten in a trice
And clench the fingers fast that feel
A velvet vice—

What man would risk the danger twice,
Nor quake from head to heel?
Whom would not one such test suffice?

Well may we tremble as we kneel
In sight of Paradise,
If both a babe's closed fists conceal
A velvet vice.