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BEFORE THE GRAND JURY |
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The Poems of Richard Watson Gilder | ||
BEFORE THE GRAND JURY
A woman, who has been a man's desire,Now cast aside like ashes from a fire,
With startled breath, confessing all her shame,
Here,—looking in the faces of strange men,
Who probe remorselessly their “where” and “when,”—
Falters her dreadful story, that the blame
May strike on the betrayer. In that glare
Plead piteous answers hardly might she dare
Murmur, at midnight, on a mother's breast.
404
To such grim audience!
O hapless fate
For this sweet girl, and for her guiltier mate.
Powers of the world, and O, ye Powers Unseen,
Be stern, yet be ye kind! Let be the ends
Of justice served; but hold a shield between
Souls and the smiting sword. O, make amends
In the oncoming years, or some far age.
They are but caught in Nature's deathless rage;
The fire that in their bodies burned doth hold
The sun in heaven; part is it of the force
That keeps the stars each on its mystic course,
While the all-changing universe grows never old.
The Poems of Richard Watson Gilder | ||