 | [Poems by Cary in] The poems of Alice and Phoebe Cary with introduction and notes |  |
THE PRISONER'S LAST NIGHT.
The last red gold had melted from the sky,
Where the sweet sunset lingered soft and warm,
A starry night was gathering silently
The jewelled mantle round her regal form;
While the invisible fingers of the breeze
Shook the young blossoms lightly from the trees.
Where the sweet sunset lingered soft and warm,
A starry night was gathering silently
The jewelled mantle round her regal form;
While the invisible fingers of the breeze
Shook the young blossoms lightly from the trees.
Yet were there breaking hearts beneath the stars,
Though the hushed earth lay smiling in the light,
And the dull fetters and the prison bars
Saw bitter tears of agony that night,
And heard such burning words of love and truth
As wring the life-drops from the heart of youth.
Though the hushed earth lay smiling in the light,
And the dull fetters and the prison bars
Saw bitter tears of agony that night,
And heard such burning words of love and truth
As wring the life-drops from the heart of youth.
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For he, whom men relentless doomed to die,
Parted with one who loved him till the last;
With many a vow of faith and constancy
The long, long watches of the night were passed;
Till, heavily and slow, the prison door
Swung back, and told them that their hour was o'er.
Parted with one who loved him till the last;
With many a vow of faith and constancy
The long, long watches of the night were passed;
Till, heavily and slow, the prison door
Swung back, and told them that their hour was o'er.
'T was his last night on earth! and God alone
Can tell the anguish of that stricken one,
Fettered in darkness to the dungeon stone,
And doomed to perish with the rising sun;
And she, whose faith through all was vainly true,
Her heart was broken—and she perished too!
Can tell the anguish of that stricken one,
Fettered in darkness to the dungeon stone,
And doomed to perish with the rising sun;
And she, whose faith through all was vainly true,
Her heart was broken—and she perished too!
And will this win an erring brother back
To the sweet paths of pleasantness and peace?
“While crimes are punished but by crime more black,”
Will sin, and wickedness, and sorrow cease?
No! crime will never cease to scourge the land,
So long as blood is on her ruler's hand!
To the sweet paths of pleasantness and peace?
“While crimes are punished but by crime more black,”
Will sin, and wickedness, and sorrow cease?
No! crime will never cease to scourge the land,
So long as blood is on her ruler's hand!
And oh! how long will hearts in sin and pride
Reject His blessed precepts, who of yore
Taught men forgiveness on the mountain side,
And spoke of love and mercy by the shore?
How long will power, with such despotic sway,
Trample unfriended weakness in its way?
Reject His blessed precepts, who of yore
Taught men forgiveness on the mountain side,
And spoke of love and mercy by the shore?
How long will power, with such despotic sway,
Trample unfriended weakness in its way?
Hasten, O Lord of Light, that glorious time,
When man no more shall spurn thy wise command,
Filling the earth with wretchedness and crime,
And making guilt a plague-spot on the land;
Hasten the time, that blood no more shall cry
Unceasingly for vengeance to the sky!
When man no more shall spurn thy wise command,
Filling the earth with wretchedness and crime,
And making guilt a plague-spot on the land;
Hasten the time, that blood no more shall cry
Unceasingly for vengeance to the sky!
| [Poems by Cary in] The poems of Alice and Phoebe Cary with introduction and notes | |