Esther, A Sonnet Sequence: V

I had been an hour at Lyons. My breath comes
Fast when I think of it. An hour, no more,
I trod those streets and listened to the drums,
The mirth, the music, and the city's roar,
And found no sermon for me in her stones.
It was the evening of St. Martin's fair,
And all the world, its working bees and drones,
Had gone out to the quays in the sweet air,
To taste that thing more sweet to human breath,
Its own mad laughter at its own mad kind.
``An hour of prayer,'' I mused, ``for men of faith.''
Yet all these worshippers were only blind.
And I, no whit less blind, among them went
In search of pleasure for my punishment.