A CRIME

Do you know the crime I committed

        Nearly twenty years ago?

At that crime my heart is torn.

        What my crime was do you know?

'T was the crime of being born.

And every day another crime

        I commit, and ever have done

Up to now in the face of Time.

        Do you know what crime this is?

'Tis the crime of living on.

Do you know what evil's disgrace

        Has made an outcast's my lot

And sundered me from my race?

        Do you know what crime is that?

'Tis the crime of having thought.