Page:Poems Holley.djvu/127

Things seem so strange to me in this strange world of woe,
 In a maze of doubt and wonder I get confused;
Whether a sin of impulse, born of a fatal love,
 Is worse than deliberate bargain, a life of legal shame,
Legal below, I think in the courts above
 The heavenly scribes will call a crime by its right name.

But we stand before the wise, wise judgment-seat
 Of the world, and it calls you pure,
That in your pearl-gemmed breast all saintly virtues meet,
 Holier than other holy women, higher, truer,
So sweet a creature, an angel in woman's guise.
 They would not wonder much, though much they might admire,
Should you be caught again up to your native skies
 From an alien world in a chariot of fire.

So we stand before the tender judgment-seat
 Of the world, and it calls me vile,
So low that it is a wonder God will let
 His joyous sunshine gild my guilty head with its smiles,
An outcast barred beyond the pale of hope,
 Beyond the lamp of their mercy's flickering light,
They would scarcely wonder if the earth should ope
 And swallow up the wretch from their vexed sight.

Before another judgment-seat one day we will stand.
 You and I, my lady, and he by our side,