r
And beg and wrangle for rank and gift,
I mix the races among each other,
I lay the centuries, drift on drift.
Forlorn and friendless
Exists no pleasure;
In shadows endless
No pomp, or treasure.
Their owners left them when on came night--
Now others claim them, with lawful right.

There is no stronghold on earth erected,
No guarded fort, that can save you, known.
Though by recorded transfer protected,
Your gained possession is not your own:
The purple hems
Of your silk-robed neighbor,
The crape, the gems,
And the yoke of labor,
Lo, other mortals their folds adorn,
On other shoulders their loads are borne!

You have arrived, you shall part in pity;
You have not here either house or home.
You soon shall dwell in that narrow city,
Where sun and moon never lit the dome;
Where crest and foil
At the gate shall crumble--
And, from his toil,
Be released the humble;
Where captives' fetters, and love's sweet band,
Shall, fragile, break by the same strong hand.

Where is your wife, and where is your mother?--
Then they have wandered away that road,
Whence none returneth to greet another,
The foot-path, soon, to _your_ last abode....
Take tender care of
The charge God left thee,
Ere, unaware of,
It be bereft thee,
Before your eyes nevermore to mount,
Till for its keeping you shall account!

"Where is your brother? Where is your equal?"
Will _then_ be questions too late to heed.
You _then_ find brethren--such is the sequel--
You spiteful rich, in the worms you feed!
And when they fattened,
Like you, expire,
A reptile battened
Shall growth acquire,
Whose stings and gnawing shall never cease.
Upon your conscience, devoid of peace.

For you it waits, you, whose greed is preying
On mishap's victims, on joy forlorn;
Who, faith and country alike betraying,
The good deride and the sacred scorn;
Who, laws repressing
And hearts decoying,
Are virtue's blessing,
For fun, destroying--
And woe is fun's and derision's prize,
When, pale, the phantoms of vengeance rise.

For you it waits, all ye lying spirits,
When, stiff, the tongue to