Deliverer Christ; thou rack'st the souls of men; Thou tossest girls to lions and boys to flames; [51] Thou hew'st Crusader down by Saracen; Thou buildest closets full of secret shames; Indifferent cruel, thou dost blow the blaze Round Ridley or Servetus; all thy days Smell scorched; I would -- Thou base-born Accident of time and place -- Bigot Pretender unto Judgment's throne -- Bastard, that claimest with a cunning face Those rights the true, true Son of Man doth own By Love's authority -- thou Rebel cold [61] At head of civil wars and quarrels old -- Thou Knife on a throne -- I would thou left'st me free, to live with love, And faith, that through the love of love doth find My Lord's dear presence in the stars above, The clods below, the flesh without, the mind Within, the bread, the tear, the smile. Opinion, damned Intriguer, gray with guile, Let me alone. ____ Baltimore, 1878-9. Notes: Remonstrance This is the first and the greatest of the `Street-cries': see the introductory note to `Life and Song'. For an interpretation of the poem see `Introduction', pp. xxix [Part III], xlv, xlvii [Part IV]. 26, 33. Amusing illustrations of such intolerance may be found in `Jack-knife and Brambles' (Nashville, 1893), by Bishop Atticus G. Haygood, of the Methodist Church, South. One brother, we are told (p. 278), objected to hearing Bishop Haygood in 1859 because of his wearing a beard; while another (p. 281), along in the thirties, voted against licensing Bishop George F. Pierce because his hair was "combed back from his forehead"! 46. For an account of Socrates, the Greek philosopher, poisoned in 399 B.C., see Xenophon's `Memorabilia' and Plato's dialogues. 47. See St. Matthew 27:20. 54. For the burning of Nicholas Ridley, an English Bishop, on October 16, 1555, see Green's `Shorter History of England'. Michael Servetus, a Spanish scientific and theological writer, was burned as a heretic at Geneva, October 27, 1553. Opposition Of fret, of dark, of thorn, of chill, [1] Complain no more; for these, O heart, Direct the random of the will As rhymes direct the rage of art. The lute's fixt fret, that runs athwart The strain and purpose of the string, For governance and nice consort Doth bar his willful wavering. The dark hath many dear avails; The dark distils divinest dews; The dark is rich with nightingales, [11] With dreams, and with the heavenly Muse. Bleeding with thorns of petty strife, I'll ease (as lovers do) my smart With sonnets to my lady Life Writ red in issues from the heart. What grace may lie within the chill Of favor frozen fast in scorn! When Good's a-freeze, we call it Ill! This rosy Time is glacier-born. Of fret, of dark, of thorn, of chill, [21] Complain thou not, O heart; for these Bank-in the current of the will To uses, arts, and charities. ____ Baltimore, 1879-80. Notes: Opposition