Lamentations
Her noble infant charms
Announced a queen to be,
Wise, beautiful, and pure, and brave as are the free.
Announced a queen to be,
Wise, beautiful, and pure, and brave as are the free.
"Thou madst this queen thy slave,
In falsehood, fear, and shame;
The best her mother gave
Was counted her for blame,
And Fame suborned to make a byword of her name.
In falsehood, fear, and shame;
The best her mother gave
Was counted her for blame,
And Fame suborned to make a byword of her name.
"Reared up to toil by blows,
Her childhood pined in fears,
Until, at last, a rose
Of beauty, as the years
Went forward, smiled upon the cruel world through tears.
Her childhood pined in fears,
Until, at last, a rose
Of beauty, as the years
Went forward, smiled upon the cruel world through tears.
"Then, crowned and chained and scorned,
When first her head she raised,
A strange new lustre warned
Her master, as he gazed,
That in her eyes a spirit waked and watched, amazed;
When first her head she raised,
A strange new lustre warned
Her master, as he gazed,
That in her eyes a spirit waked and watched, amazed;
"Against its bars to beat,
With plumage blood-besprent,
With plumage blood-besprent,
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