Hear me
read
the poem as
an MP3 file.
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the poem as
a YouTube video.
Music:
Pieces en Concert -- Prelude, La Tromba, Air de
Diable.
By Francois Couperin.
Performed by The Advent Chamber Orchestra at the
Free Music Archive
under a Creative
Commons Attribution/ShareAlike license.
Even so, we did what we believed
in:
Treason, yes, perhaps, but with good cause.
History will judge by its own laws,
Each act within the sunlight of its season.
Love was what inspired us, a reason
As pure as any saint in Satan's jaws.
Nor was the god we worshipped through those wars
Demonized, as later all would see him.
Justice would not just sustain our guilt,
Undoing those who would undo a wrong,
Leaving us in lucid infamy.
Instead, it would remember what we willed
Under the illusion of a song
So beautiful it would the chained earth free.
Note: Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were executed on July 19, 1953, for conspiracy to commit espionage against the United States.
Copyright by Nicholas Gordon. Free for personal or non-commercial use.
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