Poems (Hoffman)/The Wrecked Life

by Martha Lavinia Hoffman

A WRECKED LIFE

"They blame us most when we are least to blame,
And they with souls made black with hate and shame,
Had angels one mistake to mourn with them,
Would stand the readiest judges to condemn.

"O Earth, have pity when thy blasts have wrecked,
The purest lily that thy gardens decked!"
(It was a woman's cry; she stood alone,
Whom fortune, beauty, love and friends had known.)