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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


LEOPOLD OF BELGIUM by WILLIAM WATSON

Poet Analysis

First Line: KHALIFS AND KHANS HAVE WE BEHELD, WHO TROD
Last Line: TRUMPET HIS NAME, AND FLOOD HIS DEEDS WITH DAY.
Subject(s): DEATH; EARTH; TIME; DEAD, THE; WORLD;

KHALIFS and Khans have we beheld, who trod
The people as one neck beneath their heel;
Whose revel was the woe they could not feel,
Whose pastime was the dripping scourge and rod;
Who shook swift death on thousands with a nod,
And made mankind as stubble to their steel;
Who slew for Faith and Heaven, in dreadful zeal
To pleasure Him whom they mistook for God.
No zeal, no Faith inspired this Leopold,
Nor any madness of half-splendid birth.
Merely he loosed the hounds that rend and slay
That he might have his fill of loathsome gold.
Embalm him, Time! Forget him not, O Earth!
Trumpet his name, and flood his deeds with day.



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