But tho' to him all flags are holy that men fight for
and death hallows,
He did not kiss it—I swear it by the one that shall wrap
my body.
He did not kiss it, and they trampled upon him in their
frenzy that had no retreat save the rope,
And to him who was ready to die for a light he would
never see shine, they said: "You are a coward",
To him who would not barter a meaningless word for
his life, they said: "You are a traitor",
And they drew the noose round his neck, and they pulled
him up to the trestle and they watched him until
he was dead,
Six masked men whose faces were eaten with the cancer
of the dark,
One for each Steeple of thy temple, O Labor.
V.
NOW HE IS dead, but now that he is dead is the door
of your dungeon faster, O money changers and
scribes, and priests and masters of slaves?
Are men now readier to die for you without asking the
wherefore of the slaughter?
Shall now the pent-up spirit no longer connive with the
sun against your midnight?
And are we now all reconciled to your rule, and are
you safer and we humbler, and is the night eternal
and the day forever blotted out of the skies,
28
