---
title: Improvement Era
description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930.
authors:
  - Spencer, Josephine
collections:
  - periodicals
tags:
  - magazine
  - improvement-era
periodical: Improvement Era
volume: 20
number: 5
published: 1917-03
publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations
publisher_place: Salt Lake City
language: en
type: magazine
reference: 'Josephine Spencer, "The Kingdom of Sin: A Poem," *Improvement Era* 20, no. 5 (March 1917): 405.'
source:
  url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2005unse
  transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers.
  identifier: improvementera2005unse
start_page: 405
end_page: 405
rights:
  status: public-domain
  basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1917-03)
  source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2005unse
  publication_year: 1917
  note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1917, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright.
---

# The Kingdom of Sin: A Poem

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ORIGINAL SIN AND PREEXISTENCE                           405

Jesus Christ the Redeemer and Savior of the world, whose name
is "the only name which shall be given under heaven, whereby
salvation shall come unto the children of men" (Pearl of Great
Price, Moses 6:52).
     Literature of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
may be obtained, much of it without cost, from any of the Missions, among which are:

     Eastern States Mission, 33 West 126th St., New York, N. Y.
     Southern States Mission, 711 Fairview Ave., Chattanooga, Tenn.
     Northern States Mission, 2555 North Sawyer Ave., Chicago, 111.
     Central States Mission, 302 South Pleasant St., Independence, Mo.   .

     Western States Mission, 622 West 6th Ave., Denver, Colo.
     California Mission, 153 West Adams St., Los Angeles, Cal.
     Northwestern States Mission, 810 East Madison St., Portland, Ore.
     Bureau of Information, Salt Lake City, Utah.

                      The Kingdom of Sin
          The Kingdom of Sin lies low and gray
            A sunken isle in an open sea
          And the Ships of Life that pass that way,
            Blown by the gales of misery,
          Striking the edge of its hidden shores,
          Sink deep in the slime of their sodden floors.
          There are things down there that glide and creep,
            That have no place in the upper world.
          Sometimes, in the harried dreams of sleep,
            Their ghoulish shapes are alone unfurled
          But never an eye with its gaze undimmed
          Has seen such forms in the sunlight limned.
          And oh, the souls in those sunken caves!
             Souls that once in the open air
          Rode the swell of the dancing waves
            With hearts all bold and with forms all fair
          See them shrunken, and halt and gray,
          Crouching there from the light of day!
          No real joy lingers upon their lips
            No purpose high springs on pinion fleet
          But is smothered there by the gloom that drips
            (Through air that broods like an ebon sheet)
          An ooze from the dank of the prison walls
            To wither all where its poison falls!
                                               Josephine Spencer.