AT LIBERTY I SIT AND SEE - Amy Levy Poems

 
 

Poems » amy levy » at liberty i sit and see

AT LIBERTY I SIT AND SEE

  At liberty I sit and see
    Them, that have erst laugh'd me to scorn,
Whipp'd with the whip that scourged me:
    And now they ban that they were born.

  I see them sit full soberly
    And think their earnest looks to hide;
Now, in themselves, they cannot spy
    That they or this in me have spied.

  I see them sitting all alone,
    Marking the steps, each word and look;
And now they tread where I have gone,
    The painful path that I forsook.

  Now I see well I saw no whit
    When they saw well, that now are blind;
But happy hap hath made me quit,
    And just judgement hath them assign'd.

  I see them wander all alone,
    And tread full fast, in dreadful doubt,
The self-same path that I have gone:
    Blessed be hap that brought me out!

  At liberty all this I see,
    And say no word but erst among,
Smiling at them that laugh'd at me:
    Lo, such is hap! Mark well my song!