Page:Poems Jackson.djvu/220

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160
POEMS.
   But Christ walks through
The dungeons of St. Angelo,
And says, "Forgive them, for they know
   Not what they do."

And now the music sinks to sighs;
   The lights grow dim:
The Pastorella's melodies
In lingering echoes float and rise;
   The lights grow dim;
   More clear and true,
In this sweet silence, seem to flow
The words, "Forgive them, for they know
   Not what they do."

The dawn swings incense, silver gray;
   The night is past;
Now comes, triumphant, God's full day;
No priest, no church can bar its way:
   The night is past:
   How, on this blue
Of God's great banner, blaze and glow
The words, "Forgive them, for they know
   Not what they do!"

Rome, December 26, 1868S.