An Incident

Here is a tale for men and women teachers: There was a girl who'd ceased to be a maiden; Who walked by night with heart like Lilith's laden; A child of sin anathemaed of preachers. She had been lovely once; but dye and scarlet, On hair and face, had ravaged all her beauty; Only her eyes still did her girl-soul duty, Showing the hell that hounded her poor harlot! One day a fisherman from out the river Fished her pale body, (like a branch of willlow, Or golden weed) self-murdered, drowned and broken: The sight of it had made a strong man shiver; And on her poor breast, as upon a pillow, A picture smiled, a baby's, like some token