An Old Story

I.
It was roses, roses, all the way,
        With myrtle mixed in my path like mad;
The house-roofs seemed to heave and sway,
        The church-spires flamed, such flags they had,
A year ago on this very day.

II.
The air broke into a mist with bells,
        The old walls rocked with the crowd and cries.
Had I said, "Good folk, mere noise repels—
        But give me your sun from yonder skies!"
They had answered "And afterward, what else?"

III.
Alack, it was I who leaped at the sun
        To give it my loving friends to keep!
Naught man could do, have I left undone:
        And you see my harvest, what I reap
This very day, now a year is run.

IV.
There's nobody on the house-tops now—
        Just a palsied few at the windows set;
For the best of the sight is, all allow,
        At the Shambles' Gate—or, better yet,
By the very scaffold's foot, I trow.
V.
I go in the rain, and, more than needs,
        A rope cuts both my wrists behind;
And I think, by the feel, my forehead bleeds,
        For they fling, whoever has a mind,
Stones at me for my year's misdeeds.

VI.
Thus I entered, and thus I go!
        In triumphs, people have dropped down dead,
"Paid by the world, what dost thou owe
        Me? "—God might question; now instead,
'Tis God shall repay: I am safer so.