Page:Peter Bell (Wordsworth).djvu/73

Part III. The chamber walls were dark all round,—

And to his book he turn'd again;

—The light had left the good man's taper,

And form'd itself upon the paper,

Into large letters—bright and plain!

The godly book was in his hand—

And, on the page more black than coal,

Appeared, set forth in strange array,

A word—which to his dying day

Perplex'd the good man's gentle soul.

The ghostly word, which thus was fram'd,

Did never from his lips depart;

But he hath said, poor gentle wight!

It brought full many a sin to light

Out of the bottom of his heart.