The following POEM was written at the request of JOHNSON GREEN, by a prisoner in Worcester Gaol, and is at…

Let all the people on the globe Be on their guard, and see That they do shun the vicious road That's trodden been by me. If I had shun'd the paths of vice; Had minded to behave According to the good advice That my kind mother gave, Unto my friends I might have been A blessing in my days, And shun'd the evils that I've seen In my pernicious ways. My wicked counduct has been such, It's brought me to distress; As often times I've suffer'd much By my own wickedness. My lewdness, drunkenness, and theft Has often times—(behold) Caus'd me to wander, and be left To suffer with the cold. Hid in the woods, in deep distress, My pinching wants were such, With hunger, and with nakedness I oft did suffer much. I've liv'd a thief; it's a hard life; To drink was much inclin'd; My conduct has distress'd my wife, A wife both good and kind. Though many friends which came to see Me, in these latter times, Did oft with candour, caution me To leave my vicious crimes; Yet when I had got out of gaol, Their labour prov'd in vain; For then, alas! I did not fail To take to them again. If I had not conducted so; Had minded to refrain; Then I should not have had to go Back to the gaol again. Thus in the Devil's service, I Have spent my youthful days, And now, alas! I soon must die, For these my wicked ways. Repent, ye thieves, whilst ye have breath, Amongst you let be wrought A reformation, lest to death, You, like myself, be brought. Let other vicious persons see That they from vice abstain; Lest they undo themselves, like me, Who in it did remain. I hope my sad and disinal fate Will solemn warning be To people all, both small and great, Of high and low degree. By breaking of the righteous laws, I to the world relate, That I thereby have been the cause Of my unhappy fate. As I repent, I humbly pray That God would now remit My sins, which in my vicious way I really did commit. May the old TEMPTER soon be bound And shut up in his den, And peace and honesty abound Among the sons of men. May the great GOD grant this request, And bring us to that shore Where peace and everlasting rest Abides for ever more.