| |
| YES, stone the woman, let the man go free! | |
| Draw back your skirts, lest they perchance may touch | |
| Her garment as she passes; but to him | |
| Put forth a willing hand to clasp with his | |
| That led her to destruction and disgrace. | 5 |
| Shut up from her the sacred ways of toil, | |
| That she no more may win an honest meal; | |
| But ope to him all honorable paths | |
| Where he may win distinction; give to him | |
| Fair, pressed-down measures of life’s sweetest joys. | 10 |
| Pass her, O maiden, with a pure, proud face, | |
| If she puts out a poor, polluted palm; | |
| But lay thy hand in his on bridal day, | |
| And swear to cling to him with wifely love | |
| And tender reverence. Trust him who led | 15 |
| A sister woman to a fearful fate. | |
| |
| Yes, stone the woman, let the man go free! | |
| Let one soul suffer for the guilt of two— | |
| It is the doctrine of a hurried world, | |
| Too out of breath for holding balances | 20 |
| Where nice distinctions and injustices | |
| Are calmly weighed. But ah, how will it be | |
| On that strange day of fire and flame, | |
| When men shall wither with a mystic fear, | |
| And all shall stand before the one true Judge? | 25 |
| Shall sex make then a difference in sin? | |
| Shall He, the Searcher of the hidden heart, | |
| In His eternal and divine decree | |
| Condemn the woman and forgive the man? | |
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