Explore "Arraignment" by Helen Gray Cone on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
"Not ye who have stoned, not ye who have smitten us," cry / The sad, great souls, as they go out hence into dark, / "Not ye we accuse, though for you was our passion borne; / And ye we reproach not, who silently passed us by. / We forgive blind eyes and the ears that would not hark, / The careless and causeless hate and the shallow scorn.
"But ye, who have seemed to know us, have seen and heard; / Who have set us at feasts and have crowned with the costly rose; / Who have spread us the purple of praises beneath our feet; / Yet guessed not the word that we spake was a living word, / Applauding the sound, -- we account you as worse than foes! / We sobbed you our message; ye said, ‘It is song, and sweet! "