104
Poems
You loved my purity of thought,
Yet to my unstained ears you brought
Your tales of vice untold.
You opened wide the gates to me
Of unknown worlds,—what I could see
Made me shrink back appalled.
Yet to my unstained ears you brought
Your tales of vice untold.
You opened wide the gates to me
Of unknown worlds,—what I could see
Made me shrink back appalled.
You told me selfishness was all
The force that kept me from the call
Of Satan's wily tongue.
A strange creed surely! Is that soul
The nobler when she pays the toll
Where Evil's gates are swung?
The force that kept me from the call
Of Satan's wily tongue.
A strange creed surely! Is that soul
The nobler when she pays the toll
Where Evil's gates are swung?
Or is she better, when her own
White radiance lets her walk alone,
With fearless step and free,
Straight in the midst of unclean things?
Since from the fluttering of her spirit wings,
They hide their heads and flee.
White radiance lets her walk alone,
With fearless step and free,
Straight in the midst of unclean things?
Since from the fluttering of her spirit wings,
They hide their heads and flee.
You laughed my "silly" faith to scorn,—
You wondered where I had been born,
When I said "men were true!"
"The aptest hypocrite" you claimed,
Was he who never could be blamed
For crimes exposed to view.
You wondered where I had been born,
When I said "men were true!"
"The aptest hypocrite" you claimed,
Was he who never could be blamed
For crimes exposed to view.
