 | 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 | |