Anguish

Talk of the Heart

"The stand of honor" is victory and sacrifice.

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What an age!
What peace, what security?
O Man... how deceitful you are!
You cry equality among all creation
While the scowling, twisted conscience strikes sparks of evil
And destruction fills the earth with victims and afflictions
The fall of heroes is a wedding and a living-on!

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Alas, my heart!
The foul smell of blood
Made me shudder: it raised me up, it struck me down,
It drove the reason out of me!

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What an age!
What right, what justice?
O Man... how ungrateful you are!
The sickle of death is a reckless harvest —
A wife bereaved, and a mother, and orphaned fledglings,
Wandering, bleeding glances; brows shining white and held high

Alas, my heart!
The foul smell of blood
Made me shudder: it raised me up, it struck me down,
It drove the reason out of me!