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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


THE BANKRUPT by JOSEPH BEAUMONT

First Line: DESPISE HIM NOT, THOUGH HE / A BANKRUPT BE
Last Line: FOR PARDNING PART, WILL ALL REMITT TO THEE.
Subject(s): FORGIVENESS; GOD; POVERTY; CLEMENCY;

DESPISE him not, though he
A Bankrupt be:
To peeces broke he is indeed,
Yet not to nothing. Do not tread
Those fragments into dust, with which
He hopes a Composition to reach.

2

Thy Break is greater farr
Than his, nor are
Thy means sufficient to Compound
With thy great Creditor: look round
About thy Nothing now, & say
What thou hast left thy debts to God to pay.

3

Wouldst thou thy Body yeild
To prison? build
No hopes on that sad plott; alas
The law on thee must further pass:
Thy Soul is allso forfeit, and
Th' eternal Jayl for both doth open stand.

4

Cheat not thyself, nor say
I'l run away.
What world from Gods arrest can hide
His vainly-fugitive Worm? beside,
No friend on earth can ever be
A Surety or sufficient Bayl for thee.

5

No way away to run
Hast thou but one:
FORGIVING'S thy sole way to woo
Thy Creditor the like to do.
Nay He'l outdo thee heer, for He
For pardning part, will all remitt to thee.



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