| Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). An American Anthology, 1787–1900. 1900. |
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| 276. Calumny |
| | | By Frances Sargent Osgood |
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| A WHISPER woke the air, | |
| A soft, light tone, and low, | |
| Yet barbed with shame and woe. | |
| Ah! might it only perish there, | |
| Nor farther go! | 5 |
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| But no! a quick and eager ear | |
| Caught up the little, meaning sound; | |
| Another voice has breathed it clear; | |
| And so it wandered round | |
| From ear to lip, from lip to ear, | 10 |
| Until it reached a gentle heart | |
| That throbbed from all the world apart | |
| And that—it broke! | |
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| It was the only heart it found,— | |
| The only heart ’t was meant to find, | 15 |
| When first its accents woke. | |
| It reached that gentle heart at last, | |
| And that—it broke! | |
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