The Dark Side of the Net

There is a darkness inside us. This site is a doorway to the dark... if what you find passing through here disturbs you, there is no need to return. If you can resist...




Sacred Texts  Christianity  Index  Previous  Next 

The Love Letters of Abelard and Heloise, [1901], at DarkSideOfTheNet.com

p. 110

'Ah! then, as now--it may be, something more--
Woman and man were human to the core
.         .         .         .         .         .
They too could risk, they also could rebel,
They could love wisely--they could love too well.
In that great duel of Sex--that ancient strife
Which is the very central fact of life,
They could--and did--engage it breath for breath,
They could--and did--get wounded unto death.
As at all times since time for us began,
Woman was truly woman, man was man.
.         .         .         .         .         .
Dead--dead and done with! Swift from shine to shade
The roaring generations flit and fade.
To this one, fading, flitting, like the rest,
We come to proffer--be it worst or best--
A sketch, a shadow, of one brave old time;
A hint of what it might have held sublime;
A dream, an idyll, call it what you will,
Of man still Man, and woman--Woman still!'

       From W. E. HENLY'S Prologue to Beau Austin.

Next: Editorial Appendix