Read "Nothing but Stones" by Ella Wheeler Wilcox online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
I think I never passed so sad an hour, / Dear friend, as that one at the church to-night. / The edifice from basement to the tower / Was one resplendent blaze of coloured light. / Up through broad aisles the stylish crowd was thronging, / Each richly robed like some king's bidden guest. / "Here will I bring my sorrow and my longing," / I said, "and here find rest."
I heard the heavenly organ's voice of thunder, / It seemed to give me infinite relief. / I wept. Strange eyes looked on in well-bred wonder. / I dried my tears: their gaze profaned my grief. / Wrapt in the costly furs, and silks, and laces, / Beat alien hearts, that had no part with me. / I could not read, in all those proud cold faces, / One thought of sympathy.