 | Voices and visions |  |
29
BLUEBEARD'S CHAMBER
Strange old tale of crime and woe,
Told heaven knows how long ago,
With what shrewd insidious fret
Do you haunt our memories yet!
Told heaven knows how long ago,
With what shrewd insidious fret
Do you haunt our memories yet!
Ever as the years glide by,
Fatima, with footstep sly,
Lures us while her trembling tread
Seeks the dim lair of the dead.
Fatima, with footstep sly,
Lures us while her trembling tread
Seeks the dim lair of the dead.
Ever through long lapse of years
Thrill we, as with storms of tears
Fain poor Fatima would free
Red stains from the ensanguined key.
Thrill we, as with storms of tears
Fain poor Fatima would free
Red stains from the ensanguined key.
Round this nursery legend dwells
What continuing spell of spells?
Few grim husbands hide to-day
Slaughtered wives in weird array,
What continuing spell of spells?
Few grim husbands hide to-day
Slaughtered wives in weird array,
Yet how many a husband's heart
Hoards in selfish pride apart,
Hope, regret, ambition, aim,
From the wife that wears his name!
Hoards in selfish pride apart,
Hope, regret, ambition, aim,
From the wife that wears his name!
30
Ah, the Bluebeard's Chamber still
Bides, yet bears no blood-stained sill
Blest the wives that need not learn
What its envious walls inurn.
Bides, yet bears no blood-stained sill
Blest the wives that need not learn
What its envious walls inurn.
Blame not Fatima to-day
If too venturesome she stray;
Blame not Fatima if she
Scours to-day the tell-tale key!
If too venturesome she stray;
Blame not Fatima if she
Scours to-day the tell-tale key!
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