Pining evermore

For the heaven of love

Which their homesick lives are dying of.

But the flame of mystical desires

Turns to fury fiercer than a leopard's,

Holy fagots blaze with kindling fires

As the priests, the people's careful shepherds,

In Heaven's awful name,

Set the pile on flame

[40]

Where, for Conscience' sake,

Heretics burn chaunting at the stake.

Subterranean secrets of the prison,

Throbs of anguish in the crushing cell,

Torture-chambers of the Inquisition

Are the Church's antidotes to Hell.

Better rack them here,

Mutilate and sear,

Than their souls should go

To the place of everlasting woe.

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