Pleas'd was I when you told me how In hat that buffeted the brow And mason's loose habiliment With masons thro' Ham's gate you went. Heartily glad was I to see A prisoner, though a prince, set free. "Prince!" said I, "you've escaped two worst Of evils." "I have known a first," Said you, "but that is only one, Tell me the other." "'Tis a throne." I could not add what now I might, It keeps the worthy out of sight, Nor lets the sitter sit upright. Can there be pleasure to keep down In rusty chains a struggling town? Can there be any to hear boom Your cannon o'er the walls of Rome? Or shows it strength to break a word As easily as girls a cord Of flimsy cotton, when the bell Calls them to dinner? . . to rebel Against rebellion in your eyes Is criminal, to crouch is wise. Louis! your father thought not so; His sceptre he disdain'd to owe To falsehood; all his cares he bent To make the realm he ruled content. He proved, what many people doubt As often as they look about, A wonderful unheard of thing .. An honest man may be a king. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE PATRIOT; AN OLD STORY by ROBERT BROWNING HE HAD HIS DREAM by PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR ALFRED THE HARPER by JOHN STERLING (1806-1844) TICHBORNE'S ELEGY, WRITTEN IN THE TOWER BEFORE HIS EXECUTION by CHIDIOCK TICHBORNE PHILOCTETES: PHILOCTETES CALLS FOR DEATH by AESCHYLUS THE FLOWERING FAGGOTS by WILLIAM ROSE BENET |