{
 "id": "robert-w-service/the-harpy",
 "title": "The Harpy",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Robert W. Service",
 "poet_slug": "robert-w-service",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Songs of a Sourdough",
 "book_slug": "songs-of-a-sourdough",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 9,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1907,
  "venue": "Songs of a Sourdough (1907)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/songsofsourdoug00serv"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/robert-w-service_songs-of-a-sourdough",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/25546",
   "https://archive.org/details/songsofsourdoug00serv"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-20"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 36,
  "n_stanzas": 12,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 71,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "There was a woman, and she was wise; woefully wise was she;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She was old, so old, yet her years all told were but a score and three;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And she knew by heart, from finish to start, the Book of Iniquity.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "There is no hope for such as I, on earth nor yet in Heaven;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Unloved I live, unloved I die, unpitied, unforgiven;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A loathèd jade I ply my trade, unhallowed and unshriven.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I paint my cheeks, for they are white, and cheeks of chalk men hate;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Mine eyes with wine I make to shine, that men may seek and sate;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With overhead a lamp of red I sit me down and wait.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Until they come, the nightly scum, with drunken eyes aflame;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Your sweethearts, sons, ye scornful ones⁠—’tis I who know their shame;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The gods ye see are brutes to me⁠—and so I play my game.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "For life is not the thing we thought, and not the thing we plan;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And woman in a bitter world must do the best she can;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Must yield the stroke, and bear the yoke, and serve the will of man;",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Must serve his need and ever feed the flame of his desire;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Though be she loved for love alone, or be she loved for hire;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For every man since life began is tainted with the mire.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And though you know he love you so, and set you on love’s throne,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet let your eyes but mock his sighs, and let your heart be stone,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lest you be left (as I was left) attainted and alone.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "From love’s close kiss to hell’s abyss is one sheer flight, I trow;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And wedding-ring and bridal bell are will-o’-wisps of woe;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And ’tis not wise to love too well, and this all women know.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Wherefore, the wolf-pack having gorged upon the lamb, their prey,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With siren smile and serpent guile I make the wolf-pack pay;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With velvet paws and flensing claws, a tigress roused to slay.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "One who in youth sought truest truth, and found a devil’s lies;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A symbol of the sin of man, a human sacrifice:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet shall I blame on man the shame? Could it be otherwise?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Was I not born to walk in scorn where others walk in pride?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The Maker marred, and evil-starred I drift upon His tide;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And He alone shall judge His own, so I His judgment bide.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Fate has written a tragedy; its name is “The Human Heart.”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The theatre is the House of Life, Woman the mummer’s part:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The Devil enters the prompter’s box and the play is ready to start.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}