“Yea, thus the old man spake: 
These were the last words of his aged mouth—­
BUT ONE DID KNOCK.  One came to sup with him,
That humble, weak, old man; knocked at his door
In the rough pauses of the laboring wind. 
I tell you that One knocked while it was dark. 
Save where their foaming passion had made white
Those livid seething billows.  What He said
In that poor place where He did talk a while,
I cannot tell:  but this I am assured,
That when the neighbors came the morrow morn,
What time the wind had bated, and the sun
Shone on the old man’s floor, they saw the smile
He passed away in, and they said, ’He looks
As he had woke and seen the face of Christ,
And with that rapturous smile held out his arms
To come to Him!’

“Can such an one be here,
So old, so weak, so ignorant, so frail? 
The Lord be good to thee, thou poor old man;
It would be hard with thee if heaven were shut
To such as have not learning!  Nay, nay, nay,
He condescends to them of low estate;
To such as are despised He cometh down,
Stands at the door and knocks.

“Yet bear with me. 
I have a message; I have more to say. 
Shall sorrow win His pity, and not sin—­
That burden ten times heavier to be borne? 
What think you?  Shall the virtuous have His care
Alone?  O virtuous women, think not scorn. 
For you may lift your faces everywhere;
And now that it grows dusk, and I can see
None though they front me straight, I fain would tell
A certain thing to you.  I say to you;
And if it doth concern you, as methinks
It doth, then surely it concerneth all. 
I say that there was once—­I say not here—­
I say that there was once a castaway,
And she was weeping, weeping bitterly;
Kneeling, and crying with a heart-sick cry
That choked itself in sobs—­’O my good name! 
Oh my good name!’ And none did hear her cry! 
Nay; and it lightened, and the storm-bolts fell,
And the rain splashed upon the roof, and still
She, storm-tost as the storming elements—­
She cried with an exceeding bitter cry,
‘O my good name!’ And then the thunder-cloud
Stooped low and burst in darkness overhead,
And rolled, and rocked her on her knees, and shook
The frail foundations of her dwelling-place. 
But she—­if any neighbors had come in
(None did):  if any neighbors had come in,
They might have seen her crying on her knees. 
And sobbing ‘Lost, lost, lost!’ beating her breast—­
Her breast forever pricked with cruel thorns. 
The wounds whereof could neither balm assuage
Nor any patience heal—­beating her brow,
Which ached, it had been bent so long to hide
From level eyes, whose meaning was contempt.