The poems of Owen Meredith (Honble Robert Lytton.) Selected and revised by the author. Copyright edition. In two volumes |
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 | The poems of Owen Meredith (Honble Robert Lytton.) |  |
59
SACRIFICE.
Unto my soul I said . . ‘Make now completeThy sacrifice by silence. Undeterr'd,
Strike down this beggar heart, that would be heard,
And stops men's pity in the public street;
A mendicant for miserable meat!
Nor pay thy vassal, Pain, with any word,
Lest so the deed thou doest should be slurr'd
By shameful recompense, and all unsweet.
Uncover not the faces of thy dead.
Slay thy condemnèd self, and hide the knife.
And even as death, compassionating life,
With gracious verdure doth the graves o'erspread,
So hide beneath a smiling face the whole
Of thine unutter'd misery, O my soul!’
| The poems of Owen Meredith (Honble Robert Lytton.) | |