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1862–1893

PERE-LA-CHAISE.

Francis William Lauderdale Adams

I stood in Pere-la-Chaise. The putrid city, Paris, the harlot of the nations, lay, The bug-bright thing that knows not love nor pity, Flashing her bare shame to the summer's day.

Here where I stand, they slew you, brothers, whom Hell's wrongs unutterable had made as mad. The rifle-shots re-echoed in his tomb, The gilded scoundrel's who had been so glad.

O Morny, O blood-sucker of thy race! O brain, O hand that wrought out empire that The lust in one for power, for tinsel place, Might rest; one lecher's hungry heart grow fat,—

Is it for nothing, now and evermore, O you whose sin in life had death in ease, The murder of your victims beats the door Wherein your careless carrion lies at peace?

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PERE-LA-CHAISE. · Francis William Lauderdale Adams · Poetry Cove