I was a bit surprised to find this poem on a vanilla site...
<p align="center">Now the victim low is bending,
Now the fearful rod descending,
Hark a blow! Again, again
Sounds the instrument of pain.
Goddess of mercy! oh impart
Thy kindness to the doctor's heart:
Bid him words of pardon say—
Cast the blood-stained scourge away.
In vain, in vain! he will not hear:
Mercy is a stranger there.
Justice, unrelenting dame,
First asserts her lawful claim.
This is aye her maxim true:
"They who sin must suffer too."
When of fun we've had our fill,
Justice then sends in her bill,
And as soon as we have read it,
Pay we must: she gives no credit.
-----From The Charter-House Play, excerpted in
Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, April 1873 </p>