Quote#Wisdom
Heroes have shrunk before the torture’s wheel
Quote byThomas Skinner · 1800–1843
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Excursions in India (1832), "The Suttee", l. 91.
English (original)
Heroes have shrunk before the torture’s wheel, And ev’n in martyrdom have stooped to feel. Yet here, each day, in agonising fires, For sinful man some gentle dame expires.
— Thomas Skinner
More from Thomas Skinner
It is some jubilee;—it cannot be, That death is hailed with such a savage glee.
Why rush the thousands? Why this grand display Of pomp and pride? A widow burns today!
Death had gone over like a wild simoom, And marked her youthful husband for the tomb. And must he only suffer? Still the pride Of youth and beauty lives, the lovely bride. She, too, must die: some savage god, unknown To Christian climes, …
The pipe, the viol, and unceasing drum, Proclaim to all, the blooming bride is come!
What joy is breaking from her large dark eye— The vivid lightnings of a tropic sky! The rosy veil is archly drawn aside To show the glances she affects to hide. ’Tis all a modest maiden dare betray— The sudden sparkle of a meteor’s play.
Thinks, like a phoenix, ’tis her fate to rise Pure from her ashes, to adorn the skies.