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

She loved much

Hartley Coleridge (1796–1849)

LUKE VII. 47.

SHE sat and wept beside His feet. The weight

Of sin oppressed her heart; for all the blame,

And the poor malice of the worldly shame,

To her was past, extinct, and out of date;

Only the sin remained—the leprous state.

She would be melted by the heat of love,

By fires far fiercer than are blown to prove

And purge the silver ore adulterate.

She sat and wept, and with her untressed hair

Still wiped the feet she was so blest to touch;

And He wiped off the soiling of despair

From her sweet soul, because she loved so much.

I am a sinner full of doubts and fears:

Make me a humble thing of love and tears.