PostPoems Be Artistic. Be Creative. Be Inspired!

Immolation



From Zion roared a voice like mighty thunder;

Hills trembled and all nature stood in wonder;

An utterance resounded, -piercing spheres,-

Invading, penetrating wax-clogged ears:



"I spurn religion bidding immolation!

The practice of "Suttee's" abomination;-

I loath the laws or options that require

A widow burn alive upon a pyre!



With her last strength the unhappy widow leaps,

onto the pyre flames a-blazing high

For douwry's sake, and all of heaven weeps

While billowing smoke clouds suffocate her cry.



Woe to such laws or  choices, -woe to kin

That for a dowry's gain commit this sin!-

And fail to comfort widows in their grief

But fan the flames with "useless burden's" sheaf.



This evil practice -- - thus the thunder rolled--

Is from the fiend, - man's enemy of old!.

Let husbands, - caringly,-  make out a "Will"

To shield the wife from misery, greed and ill!.



Religeous exercise in many a tongue-

Is but the clang of rusty bell or gong,

Harsh  grating on the ear the din thereof

Unless the sounds be rounded out by Love."



Elizabeth Dandy(c)