'Nor lightly take that life away, Which God thought fit to give!' Photo: The Poems and Letters by Bernard Barton
Extract from The Convict’s Appeal
Poem by Bernard Barton
Still, surely it deserves a thought,
An awful, solemn pause,
Whether the Creed, by Christians taught,
Can justify their laws?
Which doom not death alone, but – far
As human power is given,
Thus place before the Almighty’s bar,
Man – unprepar’d for Heaven!
Ye who profess the Christian name,
Since vested in your hands,
A Christian nation’s laws to frame,
Do what your faith commands.
Reflect how glorious ‘tis to save,
How godlike to convert,
That the most virtuous dares not brave,
From God his just desert.
This precept let your laws display,
‘Return, repent, and live!’
Nor lightly take that life away,
Which God thought fit to give!
Bernard Barton, born to Carlisle Friends and known as ‘the Quaker poet’, was a popular writer in his day. The Convict’s Appeal (1818) was written to address the unjustness of the penal code and the prevalence of the death penalty.
