Three Hundred Sonnets | ||
213
UNHOLY ALLIANCE.
Yes, we protest! In just and generous strifeWe combat Rome, the idolatrous and proud:
How should the adultress and the married wife
Together walk adown the vale of life,
In a false peace and union disallow'd?
True, there be some pure Abdiels in the crowd,
Faithful among the faithless; here and there
A Fenelon, a Pascal, whom to love
Were joy, and privilege to meet above:—
Accidents all, as angels scant and rare:
Far other, carved in rock, and dyed in black,
Stand in the sun Rome's evil qualities—
Fraud, force, extortion, pride, the stake, the rack,
Blaspheming guilt, and mad idolatries!
Three Hundred Sonnets | ||