Page:The Poet in the Desert.djvu/90



TRUTH: Superior in robbery.

Though they pile up tall buildings they shall be forgot. Nothing is remembered save the soul, Which comes we know not whence And distils upon the earth As a dew-drop in a tulip's cup.

POET: Who are the robbers?

TRUTH: The little robbers, of their necessities, rob the greater ; But the greater are rewarded. The servile multitude Bow before them, saying : "You are respectable."

POET: Let none ever say of me, "He was respectable." The train-robber, the highwayman. All those who boldly take and boldly kill. And boldly tread the gallows' step. Are kin unto Drake, Raleigh, Cortez, Villon, Caesar, Whose daring charmed the world. But the fat-paunched robbers. Who, from the safety of their leathern chairs, Steal from the laborer his sweat. And murder by law the thin-armed children, Are venomous toads in the dark ; ,

Clammy, and without courage. They are respectable.

TRUTH: Respectability, a cloak to cover the coward. To be respectable is to be contemptible. Whoever takes that which he has not earned is a robber ; But he who in the safe and honored chambers Spins the spider-laws which catch the laborer in the web Is more accursed than he who takes by the sword.

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