C.D. Warner, et al., comp.
The Library of the World’s Best Literature. An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.
Hartley Coleridge (17961849)
If I Have Sinned
I
If I have erred in thought, I may disclaim
My silent error, and yet feel no shame:
But if my soul, big with an ill intent,
Guilty in will, by fate be innocent,
Or being bad, yet murmurs at the curse
And incapacity of being worse,
That makes my hungry passion still keep Lent
In keen expectance of a Carnival,—
Where in all worlds that round the sun revolve,
And shed their influence on this passive ball.
Lives there a power that can my soul absolve?
Could any sin survive, and be forgiven,
One sinful wish would make a hell of heaven.