Page:Aurora Leigh a Poem.djvu/98



' thou girdest up thy loins thyself, And goest where thou wouldest: presently Others shall gird thee,' said the Lord, 'to go Where thou would'st not.'He spoke to Peter thus, To signify the death which he should die When crucified head downwards. If He spoke To Peter then, He speaks to us the same; The word suits many different martyrdoms, And signifies a multiform of death, Although we scarcely die apostles, we, And have mislaid the keys of heaven and earth.

For 'tis not in mere death that men die most; And, after our first girding of the loins In youth's fine linen and fair broidery, To run up hill and meet the rising sun, We are apt to sit tired, patient as a fool, While others gird us with the violent bands Of social figments, feints, and formalisms,