 | Poems |  |
45
TO A DWELLER IN A GREAT CITY.
Stand still in this thy city,
And listen through the throng
To the terror and the pity
Of an awful undersong;
And listen through the throng
To the terror and the pity
Of an awful undersong;
Grim sounds unnumbered blending
To load the blackened air,
Unresting and unending,
A chorus of despair:
To load the blackened air,
Unresting and unending,
A chorus of despair:
“About, above, and under,
There holds us night and day
A chain we cannot sunder,
A debt we cannot pay.
There holds us night and day
A chain we cannot sunder,
A debt we cannot pay.
46
“No act of ours had bound us;
From our first hour of earth
The net was knit around us,
We are bondmen from our birth.
From our first hour of earth
The net was knit around us,
We are bondmen from our birth.
“So hath it been, so is it,
So shall it still be done,
Till one with vengeance visit
The things that shame the sun.
So shall it still be done,
Till one with vengeance visit
The things that shame the sun.
“No charm to soothe or quicken
Dead weight of weary strife,
No shade for souls that sicken
In the furnace-fire of life;
Dead weight of weary strife,
No shade for souls that sicken
In the furnace-fire of life;
“No hope of more or better
This side the hungry grave,
Till death release the debtor,
Eternal sleep the slave.”
This side the hungry grave,
Till death release the debtor,
Eternal sleep the slave.”
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