That the man should have his pall.
For he has a pall, this wretched man,

Such as few men can claim:
Deep down below a prison-yard,

Naked for greater shame,
He lies, with fetters on each foot,

Wrapt in a sheet of flame!
And all the while the burning lime

Eats flesh and bone away,
It eats the brittle bone by night,

And the soft flesh by day,
It eats the flesh and bone by turns,

But it eats the heart alway.
For three long years they will not sow

Or root or seedling there:
For three long years the unblessed spot

Will sterile be and bare,
And look upon the wondering sky

With unreproachful stare.
They think a murderer's heart would taint

Each simple seed they sow.
It is not true! God's kindly earth

Is kindlier than men know,
And the red rose would but blow more red,

The white rose whiter blow.
Out of his mouth a red, red rose!

Out of his heart a white!
For who can say by what strange way,

Christ brings His will to light,
Since the barren staff the pilgrim bore

Bloomed in the great Pope's sight?
But neither milk-white rose nor red

May bloom in prison-air;
The shard, the pebble, and the flint,

Are what they give us there:
For flowers have been known to heal

A common man's despair.
So never will wine-red rose or white,

Petal by petal, fall
On that stretch of mud and sand that lies

By the hideous prison-wall,
To tell the men who tramp the yard

That God's Son died for all.
Yet though the hideous prison-wall

Still hems him round and round,
And a spirit may not walk by night

That is with fetters bound,
And a spirit may but weep that lies

In such unholy ground,
He is at peace - this wretched man -

At peace, or will be soon:
There is no thing to make him mad,

Nor does Terror walk at noon,
For the lampless Earth in which he lies

Has neither Sun nor Moon.
They hanged him as a beast is hanged:

They did not even toll
A requiem that might have brought

Rest to his startled soul,
But hurriedly they took him out,

And hid him in a hole.
They stripped him of his canvas clothes,

And gave him to the flies:
They mocked the swollenpurple throat,

And the stark and staring eyes:
And with laughter loud they heaped the shroud

In which their convict lies.
The Chaplain would not kneel to pray

By his dishonoured grave:
Nor mark it with that blessed Cross

That Christ for sinners gave,
Because the man was one of those

Whom Christ came down to save.
Yet all is well; he has but passed

To Life's appointed bourne:
And alien tears will fill for him

Pity's long-broken urn,
For his mourners will be outcast men,

And outcasts always mourn
V

I know not whether Laws be right,
Or whether Laws be wrong;

All that we know who lie in gaol
Is that the wall is strong;

And that each day is like a year,
A year whose days are long.

But this I know, that every Law
That men have made for Man,

Since first Man took his brother's life,
And the sad world began,

But straws the wheat and saves the chaff
With a most evil fan.

This too I know - and wise it were
If each could know the same -

That every prison that men build
Is built with bricks of shame,

And bound with bars lest Christ should see
How men their brothers maim.

With bars they blur the gracious moon,
And blind the goodly sun:

And they do well to hide their Hell,
For in it things are done

That Son of God nor son of Man
Ever should look upon!

The vilest deeds like poison weeds,
Bloom well in prison-air;

It is only what is good in Man
That wastes and withers there:

Pale Anguish keeps the heavy gate,
And the Warder is Despair.

For they starve the little frightened child
Till it weeps both night and day:

And they scourge the weak, and flog the fool,
And gibe the old and grey,

And some grow mad, and all grow bad,
And none a word may say.

Each narrow cell in which we dwell
Is a foul and dark latrine,

And the fetid breath of living Death
Chokes up each grated screen,

And all, but Lust, is turned to dust
In Humanity's machine.

The brackish water that we drink
Creeps with a loathsome slime,

And the bitter bread they weigh in scales
Is full of chalk and lime,

And Sleep will not lie down, but walks
Wild-eyed, and cries to Time.

But though lean Hunger and green Thirst
Like asp with adder fight,

We have little care of prison fare,
For what chills and kills outright

Is that every stone one lifts by day
Becomes one's heart by night.

With midnight always in one's heart,
And twilight in one's cell,

We turn the crank, or tear the rope,
Each in his separate Hell,

And the silence is more awful far
Than the sound of a brazen bell.

And never a human voice comes near
To speak a gentle word:

And the eye that watches through the door
Is pitiless and hard:

And by all forgot, we rot and rot,
With soul and body marred.

And thus we rust Life's iron chain
Degraded and alone:

And some men curse, and some men weep,
And some men make no moan:

But God's eternal Laws are kind
And break the heart of stone.

And every human heart that breaks,
In prison-cell or yard,

Is as that broken box that gave
Its treasure to the Lord,

And filled the unclean leper's house
With the scent of costliest nard.

Ah! happy they whose hearts can break
And peace of pardon win!

How else may man make straight his plan
And cleanse his soul from Sin?

How else but through a broken heart
May Lord Christ enter in?

And he of the swollenpurple throat,
And the stark and staring eyes,

Waits for the holy hands that took
The Thief to Paradise;

And a broken and a contrite heart
The Lord will not despise.

The man in red who reads the Law
Gave him three weeks of life,

Three little weeks in which to heal
His soul of his soul's strife,

And cleanse from every blot of blood
The hand that held the knife.

And with tears of blood he cleansed the hand,
The hand that held the steel:

For only blood can wipe out blood,
And only tears can heal:

And the crimson stain that was of Cain
Became Christ's snow-white seal.

VI
In Reading gaol by Reading town

There is a pit of shame,
And in it lies a wretched man

Eaten by teeth of flame,
In a burning winding-sheet he lies,

And his grave has got no name.
And there, till Christ call forth the dead,

In silence let him lie:
No need to waste the foolish tear,

Or heave the windy sigh:
The man had killed the thing he loved,

And so he had to die.
And all men kill the thing they love,

By all let this be heard,
Some do it with a bitter look,

Some with a flattering word,
The coward does it with a kiss,

The brave man with a sword!

• wretched [´retʃid] a.可怜的；倒霉的 (初中英语单词)
• barren [´bærən] a.贫瘠的；不生育的 (初中英语单词)
• terror [´terə] n.恐怖；惊骇 (初中英语单词)
• canvas [´kænvəs] n.帆布；油画(布) (初中英语单词)
• purple [´pə:pl] n.紫色 a.紫(红)的 (初中英语单词)
• laughter [´lɑ:ftə] n.笑，笑声 (初中英语单词)
• christ [kraist] n.基督 int.天啊! (初中英语单词)
• gracious [´greiʃəs] a.和蔼可亲的；任慈的 (初中英语单词)
• poison [´pɔizən] n.毒物 v.毒害 a.有毒的 (初中英语单词)
• starve [stɑ:v] v.(使)饥饿 (初中英语单词)
• breath [breθ] n.呼吸；气息 (初中英语单词)
• hunger [´hʌŋgə] n.饥饿；渴望 (初中英语单词)
• midnight [´midnait] n.午夜；漆黑 (初中英语单词)
• twilight [´twailait] n.黎明；黄昏 (初中英语单词)
• eternal [i´tə:nəl] a.永远的；永恒的 (初中英语单词)
• pardon [´pɑ:dən] n.&vt.原谅；饶恕；赦免 (初中英语单词)
• reading [´ri:diŋ] n.(阅)读；朗读；读物 (初中英语单词)
• coward [´kauəd] n.胆怯者 a.胆小的 (初中英语单词)
• pilgrim [´pilgrim] n.旅行者；香客 (高中英语单词)
• pebble [´pebəl] n.卵石 v.(用卵石)铺 (高中英语单词)
• hideous [´hidiəs] a.丑陋的，可怕的 (高中英语单词)
• convict [kən´vikt, ´kɔnvikt] vt.证明...有罪 n.罪犯 (高中英语单词)
• goodly [´gudli] a.适意的；漂亮的 (高中英语单词)
• anguish [´æŋgwiʃ] n.(极度的)痛苦；苦恼 (高中英语单词)
• scourge [skə:dʒ] v.&n.鞭(打)；严惩 (高中英语单词)
• cleanse [klenz] vt.使清洁；净化 (高中英语单词)
• crimson [´krimzən] a.&n.深(紫)红(的) (高中英语单词)
• flattering [´flætəriŋ] a.谄媚的；奉承的 (高中英语单词)
• hurriedly [´hʌridli] ad.仓促地，忙乱地 (英语四级单词)
• swollen [´swəulən] swell的过去分词 (英语四级单词)
• chaplain [´tʃæplin] n.本堂神父；专职教士 (英语四级单词)
• blessed [´blesid] a.享福的；神圣的 (英语四级单词)
• brazen [´breizən] a.黄铜制的；无耻的 (英语四级单词)
• seedling [´si:dliŋ] n.幼苗 (英语六级单词)
• sterile [´sterail] a.不育的；无结果的 (英语六级单词)
• loathsome [´ləuðsəm] a.讨厌的，令人作呕的 (英语六级单词)
• pitiless [´pitiləs] a.无怜悯心的；无情的 (英语六级单词)
• unclean [ʌn´kli:n] a.不清洁的；讨厌的 (英语六级单词)