'Tis not the violent hands alone that bring <br />The curse, the ravage, and the downward doom, <br />Although to these full oft the yawning tomb <br />Owes deadly surfeit; but a keener sting, <br />A more immortal agony will cling <br />To the half fashioned sin which would assume <br />Fair Virtue's garb; the eye that sows the gloom <br />With quiet seeds of Death henceforth to spring <br />What time the sun of passion burning fierce <br />Breaks through the kindly cloud of circumstance; <br />The bitter word, and the unkindly glance, <br />The crust and canker coming with the years, <br />Are liker Death than arrows and the lance <br />Which through the living heart at once doth pierce.<br /><br />George MacDonald<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/evil-influence-2/
