"The Ballad Which Anne Askew Made and Sang When She Was in Newgate" by Anne Askew

The Ballad Which Anne Askew Made and Sang When She Was in Newgate

Like as the armèd knight

Appointed to the field,

With this world will I fight,

And faith shall be my shield.

    Faith is that weapon strong

Which will not fail at need;

My foes therefore among

Therewith will I proceed.

    As it is had in strength

And force of Christ’s way,

It will prevail at length

Though all the devils say nay.

    Faith in the father’s old

Obtainèd righteousness

Which make me very bold

To fear no world’s distress.

    I now rejoice in heart

And hope bid me do so,

For Christ will take my part

And ease me of my woe.

    Thou sayst lord, who so kneck,

To them wilt thou attend;

Undo therefore the lock

And thy strong power send.

    More enemies now I have

Than hairs upon my head

Let them not me deprave,

But fight thou in my stead.

    On thee my care I cast

For all their cruel spite

I set not by their haste,

For thou art my delight.

    I am not she that list

My anchor to let fall

For every drizzling mist

My ship substantial.

    Not oft use I to write

In prose, nor yet in rhyme,

Yet will I show one sight

That I saw in my time.

    I saw a royal throne

Where Justice should have sit,

But in her stead was one

Of modie cruel wit.

    Absorbed was rightwiseness

As of the raging flood;

Satan in his excess

Sucked up the guiltless blood.

    Then thought I, Jesus lord,

When thou shall judge us all,

Hard is it to record

On these men what will fall.

    Yet lord I thee desire

For that they do to me,

Let them not taste the hire

Of their iniquity.

Source of the text – The Norton Anthology of Poetry, 5^th edition, edited by Margaret Ferguson, Mary Jo Salter, and Jon Stallworthy.  New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2004, pp. 140-141.

Bourguignomicon: Martyrdom in anapests. The poet leaves unchallenged her veneer of righteous courage, addressing her lord & pretend-ignoring her persecutors.