Towards democracy
Portland 469
jthrough heavy clamped doors, with endless turning of keys;
Till at last amid all this absurd and lumbering display of
d brute force, as if for wild beasts—behind bars thick enough to
Jconfine an elephant—
look
Pthis
Lo! a well-known face!
A gentle unharmful face, making the whole apparatus foolish. and ashamed of itself—
The face of your friend whom you came to see—
So tender and hesitating, thoughtful, and lover of children: His face, also alas! grown monotone,
And like a caged wild animal’s indeed,
With dull and quavering eyes, that fill with tears, And lips whose tremulous smile belies the words They speak so bravely.
And so more clanging of doors and turning of keys, and one left behind again, clamped down, And buried in stone and tron,
Damned, Without interest in life:
Neither to speak nor to hear, to speed nor to welcome,
sa word of fellowship, a single act of kindness ;
[Even a warder for tucking the scanty blanket round an
sailing prisoner was fined ;]
Never to use nor exercise the sense of helpfulness—the
asource of all human virtue;
Never to feed but only starve the soul; Is this the Doom?