 | Women must weep |  |
OUTCAST.
Though of the rolling world and all its wonder,
In it she has no certain place,
And feels her birth was an unhappy blunder,
She would, if she knew how, efface;
For each one else, the meanest, finds a function,
Some sort of useful work or post,
And she is left alone, without compunction,
To wander up and down a ghost;
The dogs are fed, the horses have their petting,
Which even the stingiest miser spares,
But while her lot is one lone, fiery fretting,
What brother knows, what sister cares?
In it she has no certain place,
And feels her birth was an unhappy blunder,
She would, if she knew how, efface;
For each one else, the meanest, finds a function,
Some sort of useful work or post,
And she is left alone, without compunction,
To wander up and down a ghost;
The dogs are fed, the horses have their petting,
Which even the stingiest miser spares,
But while her lot is one lone, fiery fretting,
What brother knows, what sister cares?
177
Lone in the winter-night, when blasts are blowing,
Outside the rich man's window-pane,
And on her as she sees the gladsome glowing—
The shelter she may never gain;
She catches glimpses of the gorgeous revel,
The plenty and the wanton waste,
But her poor life is on a lower level—
The very crumbs she cannot taste;
Oh! she may daily need, and deeper languish
In shameful want no Christian shares,
And if it be all innocency's anguish,
What brother knows, what sister cares?
Outside the rich man's window-pane,
And on her as she sees the gladsome glowing—
The shelter she may never gain;
She catches glimpses of the gorgeous revel,
The plenty and the wanton waste,
But her poor life is on a lower level—
The very crumbs she cannot taste;
Oh! she may daily need, and deeper languish
In shameful want no Christian shares,
And if it be all innocency's anguish,
What brother knows, what sister cares?
Lone in the darker day, in the damp cellar,
Wherein she herds with human apes,
She hears the mournful chimes that toll, and tell her
The one sad way the soul escapes;
While many-colour'd life, in pride and glory,
Goes rushing on its stirring quest,
And she, without a future or a story,
Stands still, but not, alas! to rest;
Though she is not more sullied than the lady
Who with her sin the sunlight dares,
And scared must skulk in corners grim and shady,
What brother knows, what sister cares?
Wherein she herds with human apes,
She hears the mournful chimes that toll, and tell her
The one sad way the soul escapes;
While many-colour'd life, in pride and glory,
Goes rushing on its stirring quest,
And she, without a future or a story,
Stands still, but not, alas! to rest;
Though she is not more sullied than the lady
Who with her sin the sunlight dares,
And scared must skulk in corners grim and shady,
What brother knows, what sister cares?
Lone with her weary heart, that pants for ever,
And is the darkest home of all,
Madden'd by wrongs, and by the vain endeavour
To break the unseen iron wall;
She marvels if there are two systems moral,
And two religions from God's mint—
One for the prostitute in pearls and coral,
One for the prostitute in print;
And when she sinks at last by vilest wending
From pity that but starves and stares,
In kinder death, and has a pauper's ending,
What brother knows, what sister cares?
And is the darkest home of all,
Madden'd by wrongs, and by the vain endeavour
To break the unseen iron wall;
She marvels if there are two systems moral,
And two religions from God's mint—
One for the prostitute in pearls and coral,
One for the prostitute in print;
And when she sinks at last by vilest wending
From pity that but starves and stares,
In kinder death, and has a pauper's ending,
What brother knows, what sister cares?
| Women must weep | |