| Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. 1912–22. | | | | The Everlasting Contradiction | | By John Gould Fletcher |
| | From “Modern Lamentations”
YESTERDAY I borrowed thirty silver pence | |
| From Judas: he gave them with a grin. | |
| Today, O Christ, I kneel before your cross. | |
| |
| Yesterday the Magdalen came to me and said, | |
| “I am starving.” I answered, “First, to bed.” | 5 |
| Today, O Christ, I kneel before your cross. | |
| |
| Yesterday the Virgin passed sorrowing in the street: | |
| I flung a brick at her. Then, as was meet, | |
| I bore her to the house of Caiphas. | |
| Today, O Christ, I kneel before your cross. | 10 |
| |
| Yesterday Pilate asked me for water: I must go. | |
| He beat me, for the ewer trembled so. | |
| Today, O Christ, I kneel before your cross. | |
| |
| Yesterday, today, tomorrow, I am vile: | |
| You hang there motionless and dead long while— | 15 |
| In your eyes, nothing; on your lips, a smile. | |
| The world is rotten: would ’twould crash and pile | |
| Upon me kneeling yet before your cross! | | | | |
|
|
