Calumny

A whisper woke the air,
A soft, light tone, and low,
Yet barbed with shame and woe.
Ah! might it only perish there,
Nor farther go!

But no! a quick and eager ear
Caught up the little, meaning sound;
Another voice has breathed it clear;
And so it wandered round
From ear to lip, from lip to ear,
Until it reached a gentle heart
That throbbed from all the world apart
And that — it broke!

It was the only heart it found, —
The only heart 't was meant to find,
When first its accents woke.
It reached that gentle heart at last,
And that — it broke!