Page:The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1904).djvu/21

 Yet each man kills the thing he loves,
 * By each let this be heard,

Some do it with a bitter look,
 * Some with a flattering word,

The coward does it with a kiss,
 * The brave man with a sword!

Some kill their love when they are young,
 * And some when they are old;

Some strangle with the hands of Lust,
 * Some with the hands of Gold:

The kindest use a knife, because
 * The dead so soon grow cold.

Some love too little, some too long,
 * Some sell, and others buy;

Some do the deed with many tears,
 * And some without a sigh:

For each man kills the thing he loves,
 * Yet each man does not die.

He does not die a death of shame
 * On a day of dark disgrace,

Nor have a noose about his neck,
 * Nor a cloth upon his face,

Nor drop feet foremost through the floor
 * Into an empty space.

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