XI
Reading edition
Suppose a race (the vision first I saw Among the dark stern reasonings of Kant) Resolved its past for ever to recant, And from its island borders to withdraw: No man shall move—I heard that doom with awe— Until the wretched, last, lorn miscreant By shameful death full reparation grant To the offended majesty of Law. So as man’s coming race prepares to leave The Island of its Present, where to-day Europe in crime lies sweltering, and to cleave A fresh path through the portals of the Day, At History’s bar the nations duly lined Await their judgment. Some remain behind.
Hesepe, 7th July