All the vows that we had made before
That we, through honest effort, could not do;
All the promises, the oaths we swore
The obligations we acceded to
And could not, though we tried our best, fulfill;
Let them be counted not as deeds undone
Nor as requirements to be done still,
But, if they had been forthrightly begun,
And still we failed, let them be set aside,
Discounted and unmade, or nullified;
Let us begin anew. Yet if we made
The vows not to our God, but to our friends,
Let them still bind us; let them never fade
Until by their consent the promise ends.
UPDATE: "completion" in line 8 changed to "they" 10/11 for metrical reasons.
No comments:
Post a Comment