Classic Poem

Here, where fecundity of Babel frames
Stuff for all ills wherewith the world doth teem,
Where loyal Love is slurred with disesteem,
For Venus all controls, and all defames;
Where vice's vaunts are counted, virtue's shames;
Where Tyranny o'er Honor lords supreme;
Where blind and erring sovereignty doth deem
That God for deeds will be content with names;

Here in this world where whatso is, is wrong,
Where Birth and Worth and Wisdom begging go
To doors of Avarice and Villainy, —
Trammelled in the foul chaos, I prolong
My days, because I must. Woe to me! Woe!
Sion, had I not memory of thee!

Here, where fecundity of Babel frames
Stuff for all ills wherewith the world doth teem,
Where loyal Love is slurred with disesteem,
For Venus all controls, and all defames;
Where vice's vaunts are counted, virtue's shames;
Where Tyranny o'er Honor lords supreme;
Where blind and erring sovereignty doth deem
That God for deeds will be content with names;

Here in this world where whatso is, is wrong,
Where Birth and Worth and Wisdom begging go
To doors of Avarice and Villainy, —
Trammeled in the foul chaos, I prolong
My days, because I must. Woe to me! Woe!
Sion, had I not memory of thee!