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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE GAVEL, by MABEL NATALIE ERICKSEN First Line: How strange the jest that after years complete Last Line: Her sin of love and his of lovelessness. | |||
How strange the jest that after years complete. They censure her who fell beside the way, These sheltered ring-wed virgins what know they Of love that cast her soiled upon the street? "No novice she ... no man she will not greet With open arms and smiling lips," they say, "With words and siren lure to those who pay She plies her art with eye to silk and meat." The fallen woman? Yes, but where the man? He revels yet adept in suave excess, The thief who laid on her the scarlet ban. Unscathed by gossip why should he confess To brothered like within his ribald clan Her sin of love and his of lovelessness. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...MOTHER NATURE by EMILY DICKINSON FAREWELL TO LOVE by JOHN DONNE SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: MRS. BENJAMIN PANTIER by EDGAR LEE MASTERS IN MEMORIAM A.H.H.: EPILOGUE by ALFRED TENNYSON WORLD-MILLER by FRANCES BARBER FRAGMENTS INTENDED FOR DEATH'S JEST-BOOK: HUMAN LIFE - ITS VALUE by THOMAS LOVELL BEDDOES QUATORZAINS: 9. TO MY LYRE by THOMAS LOVELL BEDDOES |
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