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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TO A COWARD by FANNIE STEARNS DAVIS GIFFORD

First Line: YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO SPOIL THE SUN
Last Line: YOU WILL NOT DARE TO CURSE THE STARS!
Subject(s): COWARDICE;
YOU have no right to spoil the sun,
Blacken the blue and blur the stars.
Is your fool's-face the only one
That ever pressed Life's prison-bars,
And found escape too bitter-hard?
And cursed the great cold Gaoler, God?
Then, crooked-lipped, pain-smirched and marred,
Shrieked to the peaceful folk who trod
The free street still, -- "But look at me!
I am so hurt. God hates me so.
I know that all Eternity
Is foul and false and bleared. I know!"

How do you know? What right have you
To show your shameful coward's face?
Have you alone run ruined through
Hell's wide waste-hillocked torture-place?
Have you a blood-sealed pact with Pain? --
A secret tryst with Agony?
Has no one else dared death, to gain
The great brave soul, that wrests the key
Of Freedom from God's Hand?
Then swift
To flee, beholds the door flung wide;
And feels the Gaoler's fingers lift
His face, and push his locks aside,
While through his soul's last desperate dusk
The great slow Eyes stare deep, stare deep;
And Shame blows from him, like a husk
Of Horror; and clean glories leap
From those great Eyes to his, set free
From all the foul and false and marred:
-- "Thou! Who hast earned Eternity!
Thou! With My Secret Keys to guard!"

You! What know you of God, and Life?
There festering to your prison-bars.
Be proud! When you have won that strife
You will not dare to curse the stars!



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