Explore "The Pendulum" by Ella Wheeler Wilcox on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
[In Edgar Allan Poe's story, ‘The Pit and the Pendulum,' the victim is / bound hand and foot, face upturned to a huge, knife-edged pendulum which / swings back and forth across his body, the blade dropping closer to his / heart at each swing.]
Bound hand and foot in the pit I lie, / And the wall about me is strong and high; / Stronger and higher it grows each day, / With maximum labour and minimum pay; / And there is no ladder whereon to climb / To a fairer world and a brighter time. / There is no ladder, there is no rope, / But the devil of greed has given a hope. / He swings before me the pendulum-Vice; / I know its purpose and know its price, / And the world's good people all know it, too, / And much they chatter and little they do. / I have sent up my cry to the hosts of men / Over and over and over again: / But should I cry once to the devil, ah, he / Would hurry to answer and set me free. / For Virtue to Virtue must ever call thrice, / But once brings an answer when Virtue calls Vice.