That woman's days were spent In ignorant good-will, Her nights in argument Until her voice grew shrill. What voice more sweet than hers When, young and beautiful, She rode to harriers? This man had kept a school And rode our wingèd horse; This other his helper and friend Was coming into his force; He might have won fame in the end, So sensitive his nature seemed, So daring and sweet his thought. This other man I had dreamed A drunken, vainglorious lout. He had done most bitter wrong To some who are near my heart, Yet I number him in the song; He, too, has resigned his part In the casual comedy; He, too, has been changed in his turn, Transformed utterly: A terrible beauty is born.
The answer would be That woman's days were spent In ignorant good-will,
Have you ever had to choose between what you thought was right and your family? Carter Druse has to make this choice in Ambrose Bierce's short story A Horseman in the Sky. The protagonist chooses to defy his family and his Southern homeland by siding with the North in this story set during the Civil War. In an intense scene, Druse must shoot an enemy soldier to protect his men. It is only revealed at the end that the Confederate officer he shot was his father.
