The poetical writings of Elizabeth Oakes Smith :: :: University of Virginia Library

Think better of thy fellows—ye who dare
Stop the warm current of a brother's heart;
'T is not to mark the death-damp of his fear
And mortal agony, when ye shall part
The soul from its strong tenement—not this—
Not this doth call them from their secret ways,
From haunts of crime, and nature's seats of bliss,
Toil-worn and travel-stained for many days:
No! even we, in chambers pent, like them,
Feel the wild anguish of a fellow's pang—
The pleading of a pulse, which ye condemn,
That calls us forth as if a bugle rang.
The wronger is the wronged, such impulse lies
In every human heart when thus a brother dies.