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Home  »  An American Anthology, 1787–1900  »  1505 A Smiling Demon of Notre Dame

Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). An American Anthology, 1787–1900. 1900.

By SophieJewett

1505 A Smiling Demon of Notre Dame

QUIET as are the quiet skies

He watches where the city lies

Floating in vision clear or dim

Through sun or rain beneath his eyes;

Her songs, her laughter, and her cries

Hour after hour drift up to him.

Her days of glory or disgrace

He watches with unchanging face;

He knows what midnight crimes are done,

What horrors under summer sun;

And souls that pass in holy death

Sweep by him on the morning’s breath.

Alike to holiness and sin

He feels nor alien nor akin;

Five hundred creeping mortal years

He smiles on human joy and tears,

Man-made, immortal, scorning man;

Serene, grotesque Olympian.