A Merciful Governor + 

Standing within the triple wall of Hell, + 

And flattening his nose against a grate + 

Behind whose brazen bars he’d had to dwell + 

A thousand million ages to that date, + 

Stoneman bewailed his melancholy fate, + 

And his big tear-drops, boiling as they fell, + 

Had worn between his feet, the record mentions, + 

A deep depression in the “good intentions.” + 

Imperfectly by memory taught how⁠— + 

For prayer in Hell is a lost art⁠—he prayed, + 

Uplifting his incinerated brow + 

And flaming hands in supplication’s aid. + 

“O grant,” he cried, “my torment may be stayed⁠— + 

In mercy, some short breathing spell allow! + 

If one good deed I did before my ghosting, + 

Spare me and give Delmas a double roasting.” + 

Breathing a holy harmony in Hell, + 

Down through the appalling clamors of the place, + 

Charming them all to willing concord, fell + 

A Voice ineffable and full of grace: + 

“Because of all the law-defying race + 

One single malefactor of the cell + 

Thou didst deny a pardon, thy petition + 

Gains thee ten thousand years of intermission.” + 

Back from their fastenings began to shoot + 

The rusted bolts; with dreadful roar, the gate + 

Laboriously turned; and, black with soot, + 

The extinguished spirit passed that awful strait, + 

And as he legged it into space, elate, + 

Muttered: “Yes, I remember that galoot⁠— + 

I’d signed his pardon, ready to allot it, + 

But stuck it in my desk and quite forgot it.” + 