Classic Poem

If there had been but three of you,
We might have held the way:
While that foul thing could still devour
Which can but now decay:
The dogs who had their day—and now
Who have their judgement day.

If there had been but two of you—
She of your name, men say,
Who barred the door with broken bone
To bid the murderers stay—
If there had been but two of you
We might have barred the way.

The yellow liveries of gold
Were many and we were few:
Out of the gilded gutter gates;
Out of the sewers we knew,
Nothing so noble as Murder came
But all the thieves went through.

Not of this vain world, Margaret,
Not on this fallen star
The Heart that breaks the Fetter and Lock,
The arm that breaks the bar.
On the far side of Time's tapestry
Your towering triumphs are.

Bribery and slavery and sloth,
That had no part in you,
May tear or tame the trampled earth:
The tale will still be true
When we shall name to later lives
A lady that we knew.