Poenitentia

HEERE sits Repentance, solitarie, sad;
Her selfe beholding in a fountaine cleare,
As greeuing for the life, that she hath lad:
One hand a fish, the other birch doth beare,
Wherewith her bodie, she doth oft chastize;
Or fastes, to curbe her fleshly enimies.

Her solemne cheare, and gazing in the fount,
Denote her anguish, and her greife of soule,
As often as her life, she doth recount,
Which Conscience doth, with howerly care enroule,
The cullor greene, she most delightes to weare,
Tells how her hope, shall overcome dispaire.