| James and Mary Ford, eds. Every Day in the Year. 1902. | | | | October 27 | | On a Portrait of Servetus | | By Richard Watson Gilder (1844–1909) |
| | | | Michael Servetus was a Spanish physician and controversialist who was burned for heresy on Oct. 27, 1553. |
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THOU grim and haggard wanderer, who dost look | |
| With haunting eyes forth from the narrow page, | |
| I know what fires consumed with inward rage | |
| Thy broken frame, what tempests chilled and shook! | |
| Ah, could not thy remorseless foeman brook | 5 |
| Time’s sure devourment, but must needs assuage | |
| His anger in thy blood, and blot the age | |
| With that dark crime which virtue’s semblance took! | |
| Servetus! that which slew thee lives today, | |
| Though in new forms it taints our modern air; | 10 |
| Still in heaven’s name the deeds of hell are done; | |
| Still on the high-road, ’neath the noon-day sun, | |
| The fires of hate are lit for them who dare | |
| Follow their Lord along the untrodden way. | | | |
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