The Legend Of The Stone

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The year was dying, and the day
  Was almost dead;
  The West, beneath a sombre gray,
  Was sombre red.
  The gravestones in the ghostly light,
  'Mid trees half bare,
  Seemed phantoms, clothed in glimmering white,
  That haunted there.

  I stood beside the grave of one,
  Who, here in life,
  Had wronged my home; who had undone
  My child and wife.
  I stood beside his grave until
  The moon came up--
  As if the dark, unhallowed hill
  Lifted a cup.

  No stone was there to mark his grave,
  No flower to grace--
  'T was meet that weeds alone should wave
  In such a place.
  I stood beside his grave until
  The stars swam high,
  And all the night was iron still
  From sky to sky.

  What cared I if strange eyes seemed bright
  Within the gloom!
  If, evil blue, a wandering light
  Burnt by each tomb!
  Or that each crookèd thorn-tree seemed
  A witch-hag cloaked!
  Or that the owl above me screamed,
  The raven croaked!

  For I had cursed him when the day
  Was sullen red;
  Had cursed him when the West was gray,
  And day was dead;
  And now when night made dark the pole,
  Both soon and late
  I cursed his body, yea, and soul,
  With the hate of hate.

  Once in my soul I seemed to hear
  A low voice say,--
  _'T were better to forgive,--and fear
  Thy God,--and pray._
  I laughed; and from pale lips of stone
  On sculptured tombs
  A mocking laugh replied alone
  Deep in the glooms.

  And then I felt, I felt--as if
  Some force should seize
  The body; and its limbs stretch stiff,
  And, fastening, freeze
  Down, downward deeper than the knees
  Into the earth--
  While still among the twisted trees
  That voice made mirth.

  And in my Soul was fear, despair,--
  Like lost ones feel,
  When knotted in their pitch-stiff hair,
  They feel the steel
  Of devils' forks lift up, through sleet
  Of hell's slant fire,
  Then plunge,--as white from head to feet
  I grew entire.

  A voice without me, yet within,
  As still as frost,
  Intoned: _Thy sin is thrice a sin,
  Thrice art thou lost.
  Behold, how God would punish thee!
  For this thy crime--
  Thy crime of hate and blasphemy--
  Through endless time!_

  _O'er him, whom thou wouldst not forgive,
  Record what good
  He did on earth! and let him live
  Loved, understood!
  Be memory thine of all the worst
  He did thine own!_
  There at the head of him I cursed
  I stood--a stone.

© Madison Julius Cawein