THE STATUE
She stands where multitudes assembling
Cast at her feet their flatteries,
Pulseless, amid the throbbing, trembling
Of human nerves and arteries.
Cast at her feet their flatteries,
Pulseless, amid the throbbing, trembling
Of human nerves and arteries.
The sculptured marble at her feet
Is swept by folds of shimmering satin
And careless silvery tongues repeat
Her motto's gilded Latin.
Is swept by folds of shimmering satin
And careless silvery tongues repeat
Her motto's gilded Latin.
Wealth is her daily, hourly guest,
Want at her shrine delights to linger;
None leave her presence cursed or blessed
By one fair, faultless, frozen finger.
Want at her shrine delights to linger;
None leave her presence cursed or blessed
By one fair, faultless, frozen finger.
Despair, in gaiety's disguise
From the dark alleys of the city
Writhing in guilt's dread agonies
Wakes in her breast, no scorn, no pity.
From the dark alleys of the city
Writhing in guilt's dread agonies
Wakes in her breast, no scorn, no pity.
None, common sisterhood may claim
For sympathy in sorrow's story,
Of all whose beauty is her fame
Whose image is her glory.
For sympathy in sorrow's story,
Of all whose beauty is her fame
Whose image is her glory.
Curses and prayers are one to her,
Virtue and vice, and woe, and gladness
Fail in her stony heart to stir
Throbbings of joy or sadness.
Virtue and vice, and woe, and gladness
Fail in her stony heart to stir
Throbbings of joy or sadness.
Fever may never flush her cheek
Or pain distort her chiseled features
And stony cold the lips that speak
No word to cheer her fellow-creatures.
Or pain distort her chiseled features
And stony cold the lips that speak
No word to cheer her fellow-creatures.
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