The Earth's Shame
The Speaker, August 7, 1897



Name not his deed: in shuddering and in haste,
We dragged him darkly o'er the windy fell;
That night there was a gibbet in the waste,
And a new sin in hell.

Be one thing hid from commonwealths and kings,
By all men born be one true tale forgot:
But three kings, braver than all earthly things,
Faced him, and heard him not.

Above his head and sunken secret face dead;
Nested the sparrow's young, and dropped not
From the red blood and slime of that lost place
Grew daisies white, not red.

And, from high Heaven looking upon him,
Slowly upon the face of God did come
A smile the cherubim and seraphim
Hid all their faces from.