Cordula's Web. NOAA. Multiple cloud-to-ground and cloud-to-cloud lightning strokes.
NOAA Photo Library: nssl0010. Multiple cloud/ground lightning strokes. C. Clark. HiRes. Gallery 2
<
>

The Woman with the Serpent's Tongue

William Watson

She is not old, she is not young,
The Woman with the Serpent's Tongue.
The haggard cheek, the hungering eye,
The poisoned words that wildly fly,

The famished face, the fevered hand,
Who slights the worthiest in the land,
Sneers at the just, contemns the brave,
And blackens goodness in its grave.

In truthful numbers be she sung,
The Woman with the Serpent's Tongue;
Concerning whom, Fame hints at things
Told but in shrugs and whisperings:

Ambitious from her natal hour,
And scheming all her life for power;
With little left of seemly pride;
With venomed fangs she cannot hide;

Who half makes love to you to-day,
To-morrow gives her guest away.

* * * * *

Burnt up within by that strange soul
She cannot slake, or yet control:
Malignant-lipped, unkind, unsweet;
Past all example indiscreet;

Hectic, and always overstrung, -
The Woman with the Serpent's Tongue.

To think that such as she can mar
Names that among the noblest are!
That hands like hers can touch the springs
That move who knows what men and things?

That on her will their fates have hung!
The Woman with the Serpent's Tongue.

Home :: Poetry :: Protest (1) :: The Woman with the Serpent's Tongue