FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   >>  
shonoured for their needs. And down these nineteen centuries anew Comes the hoarse-throated, brutalized refrain, "Give us Barabbas, crucify the Jew!" Once more a man must bear a nation's stain,-- And that in France, the chivalrous, whose lore Made her the flower of knightly age gone by. Now she lies hideous with a leprous sore No skill can cure--no pardon purify. And an indignant world, transfixed with hate Of such disease, cries, as in Herod's time, Pointing its finger at her festering state, "Room for the leper, and her leprous crime!" And France, writhing from years of torment, cries Out in her anguish, "Let this Jew endure, Damned and disgraced, vicarious sacrifice. The honour of my army is secure." And, vampire-like, that army sucks the blood From out a martyr's veins, and strips his crown Of honour from him, and his herohood Flings in the dust, and cuts his manhood down. Hide from your God, O! ye that did this act! With lesser crimes the halls of Hell are paved. Your army's honour may be still intact, Unstained, unsoiled, unspotted,--but unsaved. [4] Written after Dreyfus was exiled. YOUR MIRROR FRAME Methinks I see your mirror frame, Ornate with photographs of them. Place mine therein, for, all the same, I'll have my little laughs at them. For girls may come, and girls may go, I think I have the best of them; And yet this photograph I know You'll toss among the rest of them. I cannot even hope that you Will put me in your locket, dear; Nor costly frame will I look through, Nor bide in your breast pocket, dear. For none your heart monopolize, You favour such a nest of them. So I but hope your roving eyes Seek mine among the rest of them. For saucy sprite, and noble dame, And many a dainty maid of them Will greet me in your mirror frame, And share your kisses laid on them. And yet, sometimes I fancy, dear, You hold me as the best of them. So I'm content if I appear To-night with all the rest of them. THE CITY AND THE SEA I To none the city bends a servile knee; Purse-proud and scornful, on her heights she stands, And at her feet the great white moaning sea Shoulders incessantly the grey-gold sands,-- One the Almighty's child since time began, And one the might of Mammon, born of clods; For all the city is the work of man, But all the sea is God's. II And she--between the ocean and the tow
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   >>  



Top keywords:

honour

 

leprous

 
France
 

mirror

 

shonoured

 
roving
 

costly

 

breast

 

monopolize

 
pocket

favour

 
laughs
 

Ornate

 

photographs

 

nineteen

 
photograph
 

locket

 

Almighty

 

incessantly

 

Shoulders


stands
 

moaning

 
Mammon
 

heights

 

scornful

 

kisses

 

centuries

 
dainty
 

content

 

servile


sprite
 
festering
 

crucify

 
finger
 

transfixed

 

disease

 

Pointing

 

Barabbas

 
endure
 
Damned

disgraced

 

vicarious

 

anguish

 

writhing

 
torment
 

indignant

 

flower

 

knightly

 
chivalrous
 

pardon