Page:Poems and ballads (IA poemsballads00swinrich).pdf/141

 Wine and rank poison, milk and blood, Being mixed therein Since first the devil threw dice with God For you, Faustine.

Your naked new-born soul, their stake, Stood blind between; God said "let him that wins her take And keep Faustine."

But this time Satan throve, no doubt: Long since, I ween, God's part in you was battered out; Long since, Faustine.

The die rang sideways as it fell, Rang cracked and thin, Like a man's laughter heard in hell Far down, Faustine,

A shadow of laughter like a sigh, Dead sorrow's kin; So rang, thrown down, the devil's die That won Faustine.

A suckling of his breed you were, One hard to wean; But God, who lost you, left you fair, We see, Faustine.