Robert Browning

“ God must judge the couple: leave them as they are
—Whichever one's the guiltless, to his glory,
And whichever one the guilt's with, to my story!
II
Why, you would not bid men, sunk in such a slough,
Strike no arm out further, stick and stink as now,
Leaving right and wrong to settle the embroilment,
Heaven with snaky hell, in torture and entoilment?
III
Who's the culprit of them? How must he conceive
God—the queen he caps to, laughing in his sleeve,
" 'Tis but decent to profess oneself beneath her:
"Still, one must not be too much in earnest, either!" ”