Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, TO MY LORD VERULAM, by GEORGE HERBERT CLARKE



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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TO MY LORD VERULAM, by                    
First Line: Of mankind meanest!' out upon the pen
Last Line: The way more sure appearing.
Subject(s): Honor; Morality; Poetry & Poets; Ethics


"OF mankind meanest!" Out upon the pen
That dared malign you, good my lord, so grossly,—
A little soul, that stooped his lowest then,
With formal praise to mingle blame morosely,
At courtly honour sneering!

Your steady conscience those may read that run,
Maugre a faithless king and "raskall rabble;"
Your life-truth and your word-truth were as one;—
The empty man is known by empty babble:
The wise can wait a hearing.

The hand that wrote of friendship, and the heart
That Matthews loved, and Rawley, were not strange;
The eloquences of your lordly art
Had in your bosom first their ample range,
Their high-bred spirits rearing.

Thinker profound and patient, labourer true
Amid the turmoil of an eager time,—
Not without fault, yet blameless—we by you
Move cheerlier forward to the golden prime,
The way more sure appearing.





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