| W. Garrett Horder, comp. The Poets’ Bible: New Testament. 1895. | | | | St. John the Baptist Beheaded in Prison (IV.) | | From the Parisian Breviary |
| | Translated by Isaac Williams
HIS open veins all flow with gore: | |
| Drink, tyrant, and be satisfied! | |
| Or of his blood upon the floor, | |
| Amid thy cups and viands, pour | |
| An offering to thy pride! | 5 |
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| He saw, and startled back, I trow, | |
| When on that glittering festive scene | |
| Death’s silent image lookèd forth now, | |
| From that same majesty of brow, | |
| Reproving, grave, serene. | 10 |
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| Thus He who all things ordereth, | |
| His herald bids the way to lead, | |
| Sends him resisting e’en to death, | |
| To chambers of the grave beneath, | |
| His Master to precede. | 15 |
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| The earth Thy praises shall prolong, | |
| O ever-blessed One and Three; | |
| Till Heaven takes up the wondrous song, | |
| In multitudinous thunders strong, | |
| To all eternity. | 20 | | | |
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