Reading the Will
Here we have it, scratched and scored
By the tides of an impotent human soul;
He that wrote it died abhorred,
And scarcely the bell had ceased to toll
Ere they crowded together over the cake,
Ferret-eyed women and keen-faced men,
In the putrid well of his life to slake
Their viperous throats, and wonder when
The lawyer was coming to give their share—
Waiting like beasts behind the bars
For the meat apportioned,—and all the air
Thick with the hissing whisper that mars
Fame of the living and fame of the dead.
See that woman, her yellow teeth
Pressing the lip's thin line of red;
Mark the struggle that lies beneath
The outer surface of weepers and veils!
She was his housekeeper, people muttered
Hints, half-hinting, and half-heard tales,
Poison tipping each syllable uttered.
Charity, this! And the dead man lies
Still? Impossible! He must stir,
Slip the bandages, turn and rise,
Speak, refuting the blot on her!
There is no sign. Does he hear them say
She has it all, and "We know how
She wiled it from him, but let us stay
To hear the reading—it's coming now"?
Slowly, slowly, the red seals break.
Watch them, marking his ev'ry word—
How in life he had willed to make
This one wretched, and that preferred.
"I will and I choose that such a one
Should have my all!" O woe, O woe!
Human potency, what has it done
To help men's souls in the shades below?
Does he remember his power past,
How that he made men smile or weep,—
Helpless to hold his riches fast,
Fighting with blows men strike in sleep?
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published in 1881, before the cutoff of January 1, 1929.
The longest-living author of this work died in 1936, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 87 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.
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