Their fathers wronged thee, Master, long ago:
⁠Rejected thee, because they knew thee not
Whom it had been their highest peace to know,
⁠And nobler dreams forgot,
Preferred a kingdom of this world to thee,
And saw thee sacrificed upon a tree.

Yet thou in death—even in death, didst pray:—
⁠"Father, forgive! They know not what they do!"
But what of those, more culpable than they—
⁠Oh, more than they, untrue,
Who, in thy name, dear Christ! have tortured men,
And crucified thee countless times since then?