This Me－that walks and works－must die — Wandering Jew

This me that walks and works must die ¹
Some fair or stormy Day
Adversity if it may be
Or wild prosperity
The Rumor Gate was shut so tight ⁵
Before my mind was born
That even a Prognostic push
Can make no Crease thereon

(F.1616/J.1588)

[1] This Me－that walks and works:: the speaker, Emily, who has the same fate as Ahasuerus the shoemaker of Jerusalem for rejecting Jesus.
[3, 4] Adversity, Or wild prosperity:: she's having a bad and good life.
[5] The Rumor's Gate:: a gate rejecting rumors, not a gate made of rumors here. "Rumor" hints at the rumor of Wandering Jew.
[7] Prognostic's push:: the one who rejects Jesus is pushed to wander and never to find rest until doomsday.
[8] Can make no Crease thereon:: Wandering Jew is a rumor that can't pass the rumor's gate. Emily's gate makes no crease for the Prognostic's push.

The story of the shoemaker of Jerusalem is generally known. When Jesus passed by his house, bending under the weight of the cross, he would rest an instant at his door; but the miscreant came out, and with imprecations drove the Saviour away, for the sake of gaining the favour of his enemies. The shoemaker, whose name was Ahasuerus, then drew on himself the curse ever to be a wanderer and never to find rest until doomsday. ─ Northern Mythology (1851)

The Wandering Jew is a fictitious personage, who figures in certain legendary tales founded on an occurrence which is traditionally said to have happened at Jerusalem at the time of Christ's crucifixion. According to the more current account, the Saviour, when fatigued by the burden of the cross on his way to Calvary, stopped to rest himself by reclining against the house of a Jew named Ahasverus. The zealous Israelite, enraged by this fancied profanation of his premises, rudely ordered Christ to leave the spot, and proceed, assailing him in his wrath with a torrent of denunciations and reproaches. Jesus cost a mild look at the passionate man, and said,—"Thou shalt wander on the face of the earth till I come!" Ahasverus, confounded by the rebuke from the Saviour's eye, and internally acknowledging the force and authority of the sentence, did not recover the use of his faculties until after the procession had passed on, and the streets were deserted and silent. Then, in obedience to the command, and impelled by remorse and an ardent, irrepressible longing for dissolution then first felt, he commenced his wandering career, and since wanders perpetually from place to place, and from country to country, in the vain search of a grave and repose. Thus the legend. ─ The American Monthly Magazine (1836)