Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE OATH, by HORTENSE KING FLEXNER
First Line: Stiff on the tongue, the oath
Last Line: Witness to the soul's ways.
Subject(s): Soul

Stiff on the tongue, the oath
Calls man or God or both
To witness what light thing?
Crisis breathes in its sound;
Signs of the soul's torn ground
Outlive its casual ring.

The traffic of our speech
Includes, yet cannot reach
The passion-soldered phrase;
Alien to the air,
Profane, it still must bear
Witness to the soul's ways.