(Nicola Sacco -- Bartolomeo Vanzetti) <br />Executed August 23, 1927 <br /> <br /> <br />I <br /> <br />As men have loved their lovers in times past <br />And sung their wit, their virtue and their grace, <br />So have we loved sweet Justice to the last, <br />That now lies here in an unseemly place. <br />The child will quit the cradle and grow wise <br />And stare on beauty till his senses drown; <br />Yet shall be seen no more by mortal eyes <br />Such beauty as here walked and here went down. <br />Like birds that hear the winter crying plain <br />Her courtiers leave to seek the clement south; <br />Many have praised her, we alone remain <br />To break a fist against the lying mouth <br />Of any man who says this was not so: <br />Though she be dead now, as indeed we know. <br /> <br />II <br /> <br />Where can the heart be hidden in the ground <br />And be at peace, and be at peace forever, <br />Under the world, untroubled by the sound <br />Of mortal tears, that cease from pouring never? <br />Well for the heart, by stern compassion harried, <br />If death be deeper than the churchmen say, -- <br />Gone from this world indeed what's graveward carried, <br />And laid to rest indeed what's laid away. <br />Anguish enough while yet the indignant breather <br />Have blood to spurt upon the oppressor's hand; <br />Who would eternal be, and hang in ether <br />A stuffless ghost above his struggling land, <br />Retching in vain to render up the groan <br />That is not there, being aching dust's alone?<br /><br />Edna St. Vincent Millay<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/two-sonnets-in-memory/
