"If she were the whole story, If worse were not behind, I'd creep with you to glory, Believing I was blind; I'd creep, and go on seeming To be what I despise. You laugh, and say I'm dreaming, And all your laughs are lies. "Are women mad? A few are, And if it's true you say-- If most men are as you are-- We'll all be mad some day. Be calm--and let me finish; There's more for you to know. I'll talk while you diminish, And listen while you grow. "There was a man who married Because he couldn't see; And all his days he carried The mark of his degree. But you--you came clear-sighted, And found truth in my eyes; And all my wrongs you've righted With lies, and lies, and lies. "You've killed the last assurance That once would have me strive To rouse an old endurance That is no more alive. It makes two people chilly To say what we have said, But you--you'll not be silly And wrangle for the dead. "You don't? You never wrangle? Why scold then,--or complain? More words will only mangle What you've already slain. Your pride you can't surrender? My name--for that you fear? Since when were men so tender, And honor so severe? "No more--I'll never bear it. I'm going. I'm like ice. My burden? You would share it? Forbid the sacrifice! Forget so quaint a notion, And let no more be told; For moon and stars and ocean And you and I are cold." Cassandra I heard one who said: "Verily, What word have I for children here? Your Dollar is your only Word, The wrath of it your only fear. "You build it altars tall enough To make you see, but you are blind; You cannot leave it long enough To look before you or behind. "When Reason beckons you to pause, You laugh and say that you know best; But what it is you know, you keep As dark as ingots in a chest. "You laugh and answer, 'We are young; O leave us now, and let us grow.'-- Not asking how much more of this Will Time endure or Fate bestow. "Because a few complacent years Have made your peril of your pride, Think you that you are to go on Forever pampered and untried? "What lost eclipse of history, What bivouac of the marching stars, Has given the sign for you to see Millenniums and last great wars? "What unrecorded overthrow Of all the world has ever known, Or ever been, has made itself So plain to you, and you alone? "Your Dollar, Dove and Eagle make A Trinity that even you Rate higher than you rate yourselves; It pays, it flatters, and it's new.