 | Women must weep |  |
THE LEPER.
Haggard and grey,
Doom'd at the start,
In the grip of a ghastly dim decay,
Wth the worm that is gnawing at the heart,
Drifting away,
Drifting to die in her shame apart;
Tottering on,
Lonely and lean,
She goes seeking hope, that has nowhere shone
From an earthly fount for a life so mean,
With the daylight gone,
Like a cursèd thing, unclean, unclean.
Doom'd at the start,
In the grip of a ghastly dim decay,
Wth the worm that is gnawing at the heart,
Drifting away,
Drifting to die in her shame apart;
Tottering on,
Lonely and lean,
She goes seeking hope, that has nowhere shone
From an earthly fount for a life so mean,
With the daylight gone,
Like a cursèd thing, unclean, unclean.
Branded at birth,
Restless as Cain,
She has known not an hour of childhood's mirth,
Who was ever possest with cruel pain,
Iron of girth,
Like a serpent that leaves its strangling stain
Hated by all,
Outcast and sad—
While the flowers may bloom, and the song-birds call,
To the sin that is jewell'd bright and clad—
Marked for the pall,
Unclean, unclean, in a world as bad.
Restless as Cain,
She has known not an hour of childhood's mirth,
Who was ever possest with cruel pain,
Iron of girth,
Like a serpent that leaves its strangling stain
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Outcast and sad—
While the flowers may bloom, and the song-birds call,
To the sin that is jewell'd bright and clad—
Marked for the pall,
Unclean, unclean, in a world as bad.
Starving and lone,
Stricken and rent,
Among bosoms harder than pavement-stone,
With the trouble that low her brow has bent,
Ill to atone,
With her last, poor beggar's farthing spent;
Fallen and down,
Blighted and lost,—
Though the crime is fair beneath its crown,
And the vices free that spare no cost—
Butt of the town,
Unclean, unclean, and the gulf not crost.
Stricken and rent,
Among bosoms harder than pavement-stone,
With the trouble that low her brow has bent,
Ill to atone,
With her last, poor beggar's farthing spent;
Fallen and down,
Blighted and lost,—
Though the crime is fair beneath its crown,
And the vices free that spare no cost—
Butt of the town,
Unclean, unclean, and the gulf not crost.
Friendless and sick,
Broken and faint,
The confiding prey of a damnèd trick,
That was draped in the glozing lies and paint,
Cut to the quick,
By the memory of that helpless taint;
Leper and soil'd,
Shut behind bar,
With the prisoner's chains around her coil'd,
In the virtuous crowds that show no scar,
Dumb and despoil'd,
Unclean, unclean, and yet purer far.
Broken and faint,
The confiding prey of a damnèd trick,
That was draped in the glozing lies and paint,
Cut to the quick,
By the memory of that helpless taint;
Leper and soil'd,
Shut behind bar,
With the prisoner's chains around her coil'd,
In the virtuous crowds that show no scar,
Dumb and despoil'd,
Unclean, unclean, and yet purer far.
Pierced beyond cure,
Out of the sun,
She goes stumbling, with but her coffin sure,
To the crack whither all things mortal run,
If they endure—
To the shadow that no one at last may shun;
Hunted to death,
Into the night,
With her sorrow, disease, and anguish'd breath,
And the tears that darken the straining sight,
Hurried beneath,
Unclean, unclean, from the fouler light.
Out of the sun,
She goes stumbling, with but her coffin sure,
To the crack whither all things mortal run,
If they endure—
To the shadow that no one at last may shun;
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Into the night,
With her sorrow, disease, and anguish'd breath,
And the tears that darken the straining sight,
Hurried beneath,
Unclean, unclean, from the fouler light.
| Women must weep | |