And the dripping wall is high,
So it was there he took the air
Beneath the leaden sky,
And by each side a Warder walked,
For fear the man might die.
Or else he sat with those who watched
Who watched him when he rose to weep,
Who watched him lest himself should rob
The Governor was strong upon
The Regulations Act:
The Doctor said that Death was but
A scientific fact:
And twice a day the Chaplain called
And twice a day he smoked his pipe,
And drank his quart of beer:
No hiding-place for fear;
He often said that he was glad
The hangman's hands were near.
But why he said so strange a thing
No Warder dared to ask:
Is given as his task,
Must set a lock upon his lips,
And make his face a mask.
Or else he might be moved, and try
To comfort or console:
And what should Human Pity do
Pent up in Murderers' Hole?
What word of grace in such a place
Could help a brother's soul?
With slouch and swing around the ring
We trod the Fool's Parade!
We did not care: we knew we were
The Devil's Own Brigade:
And shaven head and feet of lead
Make a merry masquerade.
With blunt and bleeding nails;
We rubbed the doors, and scrubbed the floors,
And cleaned the shining rails:
We sewed the sacks, we broke the stones,
We turned the dusty drill:
And sweated on the mill:
But in the heart of every man
Terror was lying still.
So still it lay that every day
Crawled like a weed-clogged wave:
And we forgot the bitter lot
Till once, as we tramped in from work,
We passed an open grave.
With yawning mouth the yellow hole
Gaped for a living thing;
The very mud cried out for blood
To the thirsty asphalte ring:
And we knew that ere one dawn grew fair
Some prisoner had to swing.
Right in we went, with soul intent
The hangman, with his little bag,
And each man trembled as he crept
Into his numbered tomb.
That night the empty corridors
Were full of forms of Fear,
And up and down the iron town
Stole feet we could not hear,
And through the bars that hide the stars
White faces seemed to peer.
He lay as one who lies and dreams
In a pleasant meadow-land,
The watcher watched him as he slept,
And could not understand
How one could sleep so sweet a sleep
With a hangman close at hand?
But there is no sleep when men must weep
Who never yet have wept:
So we—the fool, the fraud, the knave—
That endless vigil kept,
And through each brain on hands of pain
Another's terror crept.
Alas! it is a fearful thing
For, right within, the sword of Sin
Pierced to its poisoned hilt,
And as molten lead were the tears we shed
For the blood we had not spilt.
The Warders with their shoes of felt
Crept by each padlocked door,
Grey figures on the floor,
And wondered why men knelt to pray
Who never prayed before.
All through the night we knelt and prayed,
The plumes upon a hearse:
And bitter wine upon a sponge
The cock crew, the red cock crew,
But never came the day:
In the corners where we lay:
And each evil sprite that walks by night
Before us seemed to play.
Like travelers through a mist:
They mocked the moon in a rigadoon
Of delicate turn and twist,
Slim shadows hand in hand:
They trod a saraband:
Like the wind upon the sand!
With the pirouettes of marionettes,
As their grisly masque they led,
And loud they sang, and loud they sang,
For they sang to wake the dead.
"Oho!" they cried, "The world is wide,
Is a gentlemanly game,
But he does not win who plays with Sin
In the secret House of Shame."
No things of air these antics were
That frolicked with such glee:
To men whose lives were held in gyves,
And whose feet might not go free,
Ah! wounds of Christ! they were living things,
Most terrible to see.
Around, around, they waltzed and wound;
Some sidled up the stairs:
Each helped us at our prayers.
The morning wind began to moan,
But still the night went on:
And, as we prayed, we grew afraid
Of the Justice of the Sun.
The moaning wind went wandering round
The weeping prison-wall:
Till like a wheel of turning-steel
We felt the minutes crawl:
O moaning wind! what had we done
To have such a seneschal?
At last I saw the shadowed bars
Move right across the whitewashed42 wall
That faced my three-plank bed,
And I knew that somewhere in the world
God's dreadful dawn was red.
At six o'clock we cleaned our cells,
At seven all was still,
The prison seemed to fill,
For the Lord of Death with icy breath
Had entered in to kill.
He did not pass in purple pomp,
Nor ride a moon-white steed.
Three yards of cord and a sliding board
To do the secret deed.
We did not dare to breathe a prayer,
Or give our anguish scope:
Something was dead in each of us,
And what was dead was Hope.
For Man's grim Justice goes its way,
It has a deadly stride:
With iron heel it slays the strong,
We waited for the stroke of eight:
Each tongue was thick with thirst:
For the stroke of eight is the stroke of Fate
That makes a man accursed,
For the best man and the worst.
We had no other thing to do,
Save to wait for the sign to come:
Quiet we sat and dumb:
But each man's heart beat thick and quick
Like a madman on a drum!
With sudden shock the prison-clock
Smote on the shivering air,
Of impotent despair,
And as one sees most fearful things
In the crystal of a dream,
Hooked to the blackened beam,
Strangled into a scream.
That he gave that bitter cry,
None knew so well as I:
For he who live more lives than one
More deaths than one must die.
点击收听单词发音
1 debtors | |
n.债务人,借方( debtor的名词复数 ) | |
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2 anguish | |
n.(尤指心灵上的)极度痛苦,烦恼 | |
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3 crouched | |
v.屈膝,蹲伏( crouch的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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4 prey | |
n.被掠食者,牺牲者,掠食;v.捕食,掠夺,折磨 | |
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5 tract | |
n.传单,小册子,大片(土地或森林) | |
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6 resolute | |
adj.坚决的,果敢的 | |
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7 doom | |
n.厄运,劫数;v.注定,命定 | |
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8 shreds | |
v.撕碎,切碎( shred的第三人称单数 );用撕毁机撕毁(文件) | |
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9 plank | |
n.板条,木板,政策要点,政纲条目 | |
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10 clattered | |
发出咔哒声(clatter的过去式与过去分词形式) | |
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11 bawled | |
v.大叫,大喊( bawl的过去式和过去分词 );放声大哭;大声叫出;叫卖(货物) | |
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12 hymns | |
n.赞美诗,圣歌,颂歌( hymn的名词复数 ) | |
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13 knave | |
n.流氓;(纸牌中的)杰克 | |
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14 dread | |
vt.担忧,忧虑;惧怕,不敢;n.担忧,畏惧 | |
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15 shuffling | |
adj. 慢慢移动的, 滑移的 动词shuffle的现在分词形式 | |
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16 loom | |
n.织布机,织机;v.隐现,(危险、忧虑等)迫近 | |
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17 guilt | |
n.犯罪;内疚;过失,罪责 | |
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18 awe | |
n.敬畏,惊惧;vt.使敬畏,使惊惧 | |
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19 corpse | |
n.尸体,死尸 | |
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20 plumes | |
羽毛( plume的名词复数 ); 羽毛饰; 羽毛状物; 升上空中的羽状物 | |
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21 remorse | |
n.痛恨,悔恨,自责 | |
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22 crooked | |
adj.弯曲的;不诚实的,狡猾的,不正当的 | |
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23 glided | |
v.滑动( glide的过去式和过去分词 );掠过;(鸟或飞机 ) 滑翔 | |
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24 loathsome | |
adj.讨厌的,令人厌恶的 | |
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25 phantoms | |
n.鬼怪,幽灵( phantom的名词复数 ) | |
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26 tryst | |
n.约会;v.与…幽会 | |
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27 mow | |
v.割(草、麦等),扫射,皱眉;n.草堆,谷物堆 | |
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28 rout | |
n.溃退,溃败;v.击溃,打垮 | |
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29 grotesques | |
n.衣着、打扮、五官等古怪,不协调的样子( grotesque的名词复数 ) | |
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30 arabesques | |
n.阿拉伯式花饰( arabesque的名词复数 );错综图饰;阿拉伯图案;阿拉贝斯克芭蕾舞姿(独脚站立,手前伸,另一脚一手向后伸) | |
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31 pointed | |
adj.尖的,直截了当的 | |
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32 flutes | |
长笛( flute的名词复数 ); 细长香槟杯(形似长笛) | |
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33 fettered | |
v.给…上脚镣,束缚( fetter的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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34 lame | |
adj.跛的,(辩解、论据等)无说服力的 | |
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35 dice | |
n.骰子;vt.把(食物)切成小方块,冒险 | |
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36 smirking | |
v.傻笑( smirk的现在分词 ) | |
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37 mincing | |
adj.矫饰的;v.切碎;切碎 | |
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38 sneer | |
v.轻蔑;嘲笑;n.嘲笑,讥讽的言语 | |
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39 fawning | |
adj.乞怜的,奉承的v.(尤指狗等)跳过来往人身上蹭以示亲热( fawn的现在分词 );巴结;讨好 | |
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40 spun | |
v.纺,杜撰,急转身 | |
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41 wrought | |
v.引起;以…原料制作;运转;adj.制造的 | |
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42 whitewashed | |
粉饰,美化,掩饰( whitewash的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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43 mighty | |
adj.强有力的;巨大的 | |
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44 gallows | |
n.绞刑架,绞台 | |
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45 herald | |
vt.预示...的来临,预告,宣布,欢迎 | |
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46 fen | |
n.沼泽,沼池 | |
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47 filthy | |
adj.卑劣的;恶劣的,肮脏的 | |
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48 swerve | |
v.突然转向,背离;n.转向,弯曲,背离 | |
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49 slays | |
杀死,宰杀,杀戮( slay的第三人称单数 ) | |
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50 monstrous | |
adj.巨大的;恐怖的;可耻的,丢脸的 | |
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51 parricide | |
n.杀父母;杀亲罪 | |
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52 noose | |
n.绳套,绞索(刑);v.用套索捉;使落入圈套;处以绞刑 | |
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53 lone | |
adj.孤寂的,单独的;唯一的 | |
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54 gaol | |
n.(jail)监狱;(不加冠词)监禁;vt.使…坐牢 | |
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55 wail | |
vt./vi.大声哀号,恸哭;呼啸,尖啸 | |
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56 marshes | |
n.沼泽,湿地( marsh的名词复数 ) | |
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57 lair | |
n.野兽的巢穴;躲藏处 | |
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58 greasy | |
adj. 多脂的,油脂的 | |
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59 hempen | |
adj. 大麻制的, 大麻的 | |
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60 snare | |
n.陷阱,诱惑,圈套;(去除息肉或者肿瘤的)勒除器;响弦,小军鼓;vt.以陷阱捕获,诱惑 | |
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61 woe | |
n.悲哀,苦痛,不幸,困难;int.用来表达悲伤或惊慌 | |
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62 bloody | |
adj.非常的的;流血的;残忍的;adv.很;vt.血染 | |
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