 | 'Twixt Kiss and Lip or Under the Sword. By the author of "Women Must Weep," [i.e. F. W. O. Ward] Third edition |  |
726
THE TREE OF DEATH.
For weary ages has it sternly stood,
While hailed by men with false and flattering breath
The tree of life and universal good,
When it was truly but the tree of death.
While hailed by men with false and flattering breath
The tree of life and universal good,
When it was truly but the tree of death.
The majesty of justice was the wreath
They hung around its head, though bathed in blood
That from it poured in one perpetual flood,
And fattened the cold graves which yawned beneath.
They hung around its head, though bathed in blood
That from it poured in one perpetual flood,
And fattened the cold graves which yawned beneath.
Hate planted it, and not the hand of God,
Fear watered it that held the judgment rod,
And madly strove to banish crime by crime.
Fear watered it that held the judgment rod,
And madly strove to banish crime by crime.
It bore its bitter fruit in every clime,
And turning to a tomb each verdant sod,
It made a charnel-house and called it Time.
And turning to a tomb each verdant sod,
It made a charnel-house and called it Time.
| 'Twixt Kiss and Lip or Under the Sword. By the author of "Women Must Weep," [i.e. F. W. O. Ward] Third edition | |