V

Hoped for a dawn and it came, but the promise had faded away;

We had past from a cheerless night to the glare of a drearier day;

He is only a cloud and a smoke who was once a pillar of fire,

The guess of a worm in the dust and the shadow of its desire—

Of a worm as it writhes in a world of the weak trodden down by the strong,

Of a dying worm in a world, all massacre, murder, and wrong.