How strange the jest that after years complete. They censure her who fell beside the way, These sheltered ring-wed virgins what know they Of love that cast her soiled upon the street? "No novice she ... no man she will not greet With open arms and smiling lips," they say, "With words and siren lure to those who pay She plies her art with eye to silk and meat." The fallen woman? Yes, but where the man? He revels yet adept in suave excess, The thief who laid on her the scarlet ban. Unscathed by gossip why should he confess To brothered like within his ribald clan Her sin of love and his of lovelessness. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...MEETING AND PASSING by ROBERT FROST BILL AND JOE by OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES ITALY SWEET TOO! by JOHN KEATS THE MARRIAGE VOW by LETITIA ELIZABETH LANDON IN MEMORIAM A.H.H.: 2 by ALFRED TENNYSON ODE TO DUTY by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH TO DR. AIKIN ON HIS COMPLAINING THAT SHE NEGLECTED HIM by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD |