Soledad by Angela Manalang Gloria

It was a sacrilege, the neighbors cried, 

The way she shattered every mullioned pane 

To let a firebrand in. They tried in vain 

To understand how one so carved from pride 

And glassed in dream could have so flung aside 

Her graven days, or why she dared profane 

The bread and wine of life for some insane 

Moment with him. The scandal never died.

But no one guessed that loveliness would claim 

Her soul's cathedral burned by his desires 

Or that he left her aureoled in flame… 

And seeing nothing but her blackened spires, 

The town condemned this girl who loved too well 

and found her heaven in the depths of hell.

From the POEMS (1940).