They tore her scarlet gown. "What's in a kiss?" she said -- But they hunted her up and they hunted her down From end to end of their moral town, Till they left her there for dead. But the bleeding throat of her cry Was heard in another place; And those who are older than earth or sky -- The austere ones of eternity . . . They knew her of their race. "What's this?" they said. "For a kiss?" said they; And they took the red from the dawn, And they took the dance from the salt-sea spray, And they took the purple out of the day, And the yellow out of the corn. "Give her life, give her love, give her peace," they said. "Give her back her scarlet gown; Or with ashes of death upon every head Dead you shall skip to the tune of the dead In your moral modern town!" | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...WOONE SMILE MWORE by WILLIAM BARNES BRITANNIA'S PASTORALS: BOOK 1. THE FIRST SONG by WILLIAM BROWNE (1591-1643) EUTHANASIA by BORIS NIKOLAYEVICH BUGAYEV THE ULTIMATE by RICHARD EUGENE BURTON SONNET by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE |