[Editor: This poem by Mary Eliza Fullerton was published in Moods and Melodies: Sonnets and Lyrics (1908).]
Eve. — II.
“How shall I then be sad, though I have curst
These creatures to be born of Adam’s bone
And flesh, and mine? They shall bewail and groan,
Rebel, reproach me, ignorant at first
Of the quick hope that out of doom hath burst;
But I shall love them, and by love atone
For dead Remorse that could not live alone
Nor in a heart at all where Hope was nursed.”
Oh Oriental eyes of beauteous Eve!
No marvel that they shone in banishment.
God’s great pronouncement — His supreme reprieve —
Was “gain what ye have lost.” And so she went
To rear the races that shall yet achieve
An Eden to the utmost Occident.
Source:
Mary E. Fullerton, Moods and Melodies: Sonnets and Lyrics, Melbourne: Thomas C. Lothian, 1908, p. 29
Editor’s notes:
curst = (archaic) cursed
Eden = a place or situation which is regarded as a paradise; the Garden of Eden, mentioned in the Bible
Occident = the West; the nations of Europe and America; the Western Hemisphere
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