MUSIC AND POETRY
329
Should thus be made to bear the heavy cross
For empty pageantry. How could it be
That Justice should permit the flowing years
To wash away the mem'ry of that shame?
Nor did she. Through that seeming metal coursed
The life-blood of the child. Its fibre clothed
A human soul. Supernal alchemy!
And when the gathered crowd stood motionless
And mute to hear the birth-note of the bell,
And the great tongue-beam, hung by linked chain
Aloft, smote on his brazen breast, 't was no
Bell cry that came forth of his cavern throat.
'T was Emmi, Emmi, Emmi, Emmillé.
"O Mother, woe is me, O Mother mine!"[1]
- ↑ The Koreans hear in the dull thud of the wooden beam against the bell a far-off resemblance to the word em-mi, which means "mother." Hence the legend.
