 | 'Twixt Kiss and Lip or Under the Sword. By the author of "Women Must Weep," [i.e. F. W. O. Ward] Third edition |  |
THE RUINED GAMESTER, 1886.
Darker and darker yet,
Deeper and deeper down,
He stoops in a world with his ruins set,
With the baffled gamester's frown;
Lower and lower still,
The sands in the hour-glass run,
For the blighted work and the traitor will,
That have had their shadowed sun;
Shorter and shorter now,
Is the shrift of the shameless plan,
For the perjured faith and the broken vow,
The eclipse of a fallen man.
Deeper and deeper down,
He stoops in a world with his ruins set,
With the baffled gamester's frown;
Lower and lower still,
The sands in the hour-glass run,
For the blighted work and the traitor will,
That have had their shadowed sun;
Shorter and shorter now,
Is the shrift of the shameless plan,
For the perjured faith and the broken vow,
The eclipse of a fallen man.
Thicker and thicker cloud
Signs of the coming end,
As the awful folds of the funeral shroud
On the lifeless form descend;
Sadder and sadder, drawn
By the retribution dire,
Of the hopeless gloom that has no dawn,
He sinks in the dungeon mire;
Nearer and nearer dragged,
By the hands from beneath him thrust,
He recoils at the iron feet, that lagged
But to dig the burial dust.
Signs of the coming end,
As the awful folds of the funeral shroud
On the lifeless form descend;
Sadder and sadder, drawn
By the retribution dire,
80
He sinks in the dungeon mire;
Nearer and nearer dragged,
By the hands from beneath him thrust,
He recoils at the iron feet, that lagged
But to dig the burial dust.
Wilder and wilder, sped
Down by the rolling tide,
In the last dim ray on his pathway shed,
He clings to his fatal pride;
Faster and faster, swept
Over billows he could not lead,
He is hurried by wrath that only slept,
To the vengeance he failed to read;
Fiercer and fiercer loom
Menacing shapes that mock,
As he staggers to his appointed doom
Of the old Tarpeian Rock.
Down by the rolling tide,
In the last dim ray on his pathway shed,
He clings to his fatal pride;
Faster and faster, swept
Over billows he could not lead,
He is hurried by wrath that only slept,
To the vengeance he failed to read;
Fiercer and fiercer loom
Menacing shapes that mock,
As he staggers to his appointed doom
Of the old Tarpeian Rock.
Closer and closer prest,
Clutching at every straw,
At the muddy stones with their moment's rest,
From betrayed and outraged law;
Driven to bay at length,
After desperate feints and slips,
He goes down in his still unbending strength,
With the curses on his lips;
From a present out of joint,
With a blurred and blotted past,
Beaten at every bleeding point,
But unconquered to the last.
Clutching at every straw,
At the muddy stones with their moment's rest,
From betrayed and outraged law;
Driven to bay at length,
After desperate feints and slips,
He goes down in his still unbending strength,
With the curses on his lips;
From a present out of joint,
With a blurred and blotted past,
Beaten at every bleeding point,
But unconquered to the last.
| 'Twixt Kiss and Lip or Under the Sword. By the author of "Women Must Weep," [i.e. F. W. O. Ward] Third edition | |