| Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895. |
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| Actea |
| | | Rennell Rodd (b. 1858) |
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| WHEN the last bitterness was past, she bore | |
| Her singing Cæsar to the Garden Hill, | |
| Her fallen pitiful dead emperor. | |
| She lifted up the beggar’s cloak he wore | |
| —The one thing living that he would not kill— | 5 |
| And on those lips of his that sang no more, | |
| That world-loathed head which she found lovely still, | |
| Her cold lips closed, in death she had her will. | |
| Oh wreck of the lost human soul left free | |
| To gorge the beast thy mask of manhood screened! | 10 |
| Because one living thing, albeit a slave, | |
| Shed those hot tears on thy dishonored grave, | |
| Although thy curse be as the shoreless sea, | |
| Because she loved, thou art not wholly fiend. | |
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