The Poetical Works of George Barlow In Ten [Eleven] Volumes |
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 | The Poetical Works of George Barlow |  |
58
Absit omen!
SONNET
(“Slain by judgment thou shalt die.”
Mr. Swinburne's Sonnet, called “Czar Louis XVI. Adsit omen!”)
Who shall the supreme Judge's task assume?
Not wholly mean the ill-starred Louis rose
Erect amid not wholly heroic foes:
Dethroned, not all unmanned, he strove with doom.
Wrath's lightnings bring not dawn from midnight's gloom.
Slowly man's sense of larger justice grows:
Hugo abides, when blood-grimed Marat goes:
Heaven's true Republic builds not on the tomb.
Not wholly mean the ill-starred Louis rose
Erect amid not wholly heroic foes:
Dethroned, not all unmanned, he strove with doom.
Wrath's lightnings bring not dawn from midnight's gloom.
Slowly man's sense of larger justice grows:
Hugo abides, when blood-grimed Marat goes:
Heaven's true Republic builds not on the tomb.
Most storm-tossed saddest spirit of all the race
Has been the darkling soul men call the Czar.
No flower-strewn path his wavering feet have trod.
Behold within the judgment-angel's face,
Than the sun's utmost flame more dreadful far,
The immense unswerving awful pity of God.
Has been the darkling soul men call the Czar.
No flower-strewn path his wavering feet have trod.
Behold within the judgment-angel's face,
Than the sun's utmost flame more dreadful far,
The immense unswerving awful pity of God.
January 27, 1905.
| The Poetical Works of George Barlow | |