The Ring And The Book

“Thanks meantime for the story, long and strong, “A pretty piece of narrative enough, “Which scarce ought so to drop out, one would think,

“From the more curious annals of our kind. “Do you tell the story, now, in off-hand style, “Straight from the book? Or simply here and there, “(The while you vault it through the loose and large) “Hang to a hint? Or is there book at all, “And don’t you deal in.poetry, make-believe, “And the white lies it sounds like?”         Yes and no!

Repair all losses by a master-stroke, Wipe out the past, all done and left undone, Swell the good present to best evermore, Die into new life, which let blood baptise!

The guardian angel gave reluctant place,

Satan stepped forward with alacrity,