Mine and Thine (1904)/Dreyfus

Not to be confused with Dreyfus (Coates, 1899).

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Mine and Thine (1904) by Florence Earle Coates Dreyfus

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Previously published in Poet Lore (Sept 1898). This poem was not included in Mrs. Coates' collected Poems (1916, in 2 vols.).

Alfred Dreyfus as depicted in Vanity Fair (7 Sept 1899).

DREYFUS

FRANCE has no dungeon in her island tomb   So deep that she may hide injustice there;  The cry of innocence, despite her care,— Despite her roll of drums, her cannon's boom,— Is heard wherever human hearts have room  For sympathy: a sob upon the air,  Echoed and reëchoed everywhere, It swells and swells, a prophecy of doom. Thou latest victim of an ancient hate!  In agony so awfully alone,   The world forgets thee not, nor can forget:  Such martyrdom she feels to be her own, And sees involved in thine her larger fate;   She questions, and thy foes shall answer yet.