Failure

```

These fatal words, this awful utterance,    A beam where I, impaled, Would perish painfully in impotence,    Though penitent I wailed . . .

```

```

These fatal words, this baleful, tyrant phrase,    Still sieging, had assailed My soul as spoil, in militant arrays,    And in my tomb prevailed . . .

```

```

These fatal words, a warrant for my death,    Had not your love availed, You struck and cancelled with your final breath,   And in my place travailed.

```

```

Since thus were slain these deadly words that day,    And through your hands were nailed,  I will not die, though I must surely say    These fatal words, “I failed.”

```