Classic Poem

You that like heedless strangers pass along,
As if nought here concernéd vou to-day,
Draw nigh and hear the saddest passion-song
That ever you did meet with in your way:
So sad a story ne'er was told before,
Nor shall there be the like for evermore.

The greatest king that ever wore a crown,
More than the basest vassal was abused;
The truest lover that was ever known,
By them beloved was most unkindly used;
And he, that lived from all transgressions clear,
Was plagued for all the sins that ever were.

Even they, in pity of whose fall he wept,
Wrought for his ruin, whilst he sought their good,
And watchéd for him when they should have slept,
That they might quench their malice in his blood;
Yet when their bonds from him he could have thrown,
To save their lives he deigned to lose his own.

Those in whose hearts compassion should have been,
Insulted o'er his poor afflicted soul;
And those that nothing ill in him had seen,
As guilty him accused of treason foul;
Nay, him that never had one idle thought,
They for blaspheming unto judgment brought;

Where, some to ask him vain demands begin,
And some to make a sport with him devise;
Some at his answers and behaviour grin,
And some do spit their filth into his eyes;
Some give him blows, some mock, and some revile,
And he, good heart! sits quiet all the while,

Oh, that where such a throng of men should be,
No heart was found so gentle to relent;
And that so good and meek a lamb as he
Should be so used, and yet no tear be spent!
Sure, when once malice fills the heart of man,
Nor stone nor steel can be so hardened then.

For, after this, his clothes from him they stript,
And then, as if some slave this Lord had been,
With cruel rods and scourges him they whipt,
Till wounds were over all his body seen;
In purple clad, and crownéd too with thorn,
They set him forth and honoured him in scorn.

And when they saw him in so sad a plight,
As might have made a flinty heart to bleed,
They not a whit recanted at the sight,
But in their hellish fury did proceed:
Away with him! Away with him! they said;
And crucify him! crucify him! cried.

A cross of wood, that huge and heavy was,
Upon his bloody shoulders next they lay,
Which onward to his execution place
He carried, till he fainted in the way;
And, when he thither weak and tiréd came,
To give him rest they nailed him to the same.

Oh, could we but the thousandth part relate
Of those afflictions, which they made him bear,
Our hearts with passion would dissolve thereat,
And we should sit and weep for ever here;
Nor should we glad again hereafter be,
But that we hope in glory him to see.

For while upon the cross he painéd hung,
And was with foul tormentings also grieved.
Far more than can be told by any tongue,
Or in the hearts of mortals be conceived,
Those, for whose sake he underwent such pain,
Rejoiced thereat, and held him in disdain.

One offered to him vinegar and gall,
A second did his pious works deride,
To dicing for his robes did others fall,
And many mocked him, when to God he cried;
Yet he, as they his pain still more procured,
Still loud and for their good the more endured.

But though his matchless love immortal were,
It was a mortal body he had on,
That could no more than mortal bodies bear;
Their malice therefore did prevail thereon;
And lo! their utmost fury having tried,
This Lamb of God gave up the ghost and died;

Whose death though cruel unretenting man
Could view without bewailing or affright,
The sun grew dark, the earth to quake began,
The temple veil did rend asunder quite;
Yea, hardest rocks therewith in pieces brake,
And graves did open and the dead awake.

O therefore, let us all that present be,
This innocent with movéd souls embrace!
For this was our Redeemer, this was he,
Who thus for our unkindness uséd was:
Even he, the cursed Jews and Pilate stew,
Is he alone of whom all this is true.

Our sins of spite were part of those that day,
Whose cruel whips and thorns did make him smart;
Our lusts were those, that tired him in the way,
Our want of love was that which pierced his heart;
And still, when we forget or slight his pain,
We crucify and torture him again.