W. Garrett Horder, comp. The Poets’ Bible: New Testament. 1895.

For the Baptiste

William Drummond of Hawthornden (1585–1649)

THE LAST and greatest herald of heaven’s King,

Girt with rough skins, hies to the desart wild;

Among that savage brood the woods forth bring,

Which he more harmless found than man, and mild.

His food was locusts, and what there doth spring,

With honey that from virgin hives distill’d:

Parch’d body, hollow eyes, some uncouth thing

Made him appear, long since from earth exil’d.

There burst he forth. ‘All ye whose hopes rely

On God, with me amidst these desarts mourn;

Repent, repent, and from old errors turn.’

Who listen’d to his voice, obey’d his cry?

Only the Echoes, which he made relent,

Rung from their flinty caves ‘Repent, repent.’