The poem
My days are haunted by the thought Of men in coils of Justice caught With stone and steel, in chain and cell, Of men condemned to living hell,-- Yet blame them not.
In my sun-joy their dark I see: For what they are and had to be Blame Nature, red in tooth and claw, Blame laws beyond all human law, --Blame Destiny.
Behind blind walls I see them go, Grim spectres of eternal woe, Drained grey of hope, dead souls of self-slain,-- And yet I know with pang of pain It must be so.
I know that brother's blood they've spilt, And sons of Cain must pay their guilt; I know the deviltries that stem From dark abyss we must condemn; I know that but for heaven's grace We might be rotting in their place: --God pity them!