William Cowper

Hatred and Vengeance, My Eternal Potion

		Hatred and vengeance! my eternal portion,
		Scarce can endure delay of execution,
		Wait, with impatient readiness, to seize my
		Soul in a moment.

5		Damn'd below Judas: more abhorr'd than he was,
		Who for a few pence sold his holy Master.
		Twice betray'd Jesus me, the last delinquent,
		Deems the profanest.

		Man disavows, and Deity disowns me.
10		Hell might afford my miseries a shelter;
		Therefore hell keeps her ever-hungry mouths all
		Bolted against me.

		Hard lot! encompassed with a thousand dangers;
		Weary, faint, trembling with a thousand terrors;
15		I'm call'd, if vanquish'd, to receive a sentence
		Worse than Abiram's.

		Him, the vindictive rod of angry justice
		Sent quick, and howling to the centre headlong;
		I, fed with judgments, in a fleshly tomb, am
20		Buried above ground.

First published 1816