Page:The poems of Edmund Clarence Stedman, 1908.djvu/444

VARIOUS POEMS

Who were my kindred before all others,—

Hath he set your hearts afar, my friends?

Hath he made ye alien, my brothers,

Day and night?"

Hear ye not? Hear ye not

From the hollow sea the sound of her voice;

The passionate, far-off tone, which sayeth:

The lust that shameth, the sword that slayeth?

They bind me! they rend my delicate locks;

They shred the beautiful robes I won me!

My round limbs bleed on the mountain rocks:

Save me, ere they have quite undone me!"

Hear ye not?

Speak at last! Speak at last!

In the might of your strength, in the strength of your right,

Speak out at last to the treacherous spoiler!

Say: "Will ye harry her in our sight?

Ye shall not trample her down, nor soil her!

Loose her bonds! let her rise in her loveliness,—

Our virginal sister; or, if ye shame her,

Dark Amnon shall rue for her sore distress,

And her sure revenge shall be that of Tamar!"

Speak at last!

THE COMEDIAN'S LAST NIGHT

yet! No, no,—you would not quote

That meanest of the critic's gags?

'T was surely not of me they wrote

Those words, too late the veteran lags: 414