“Two”

She toiled up Calvary with her cross― 
Bending beneath its weight, 
Patient, undaunted, to the top 
Nor murmured at her fate. 
She toiled up Calvary with her cross, 
In anguish and in pain; 
The world of men her courage praised 
And cheered―I heard them plain. 
But while men shout her praises loud, 
And flowers at her feet toss, 
Pity, O God, the feebler one 
Who sank beneath her cross. 
 
“Two” as it appears in Higginson’s When the Birds Go North Again (1898).