"@2O@1F 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. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE FUNERAL TREE OF THE SOKOKIS by JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER HARVEST by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN AN OLD DREAM by WILLIAM STANLEY BRAITHWAITE THE BEGINNING by RUPERT BROOKE LIMERICK by ROBERT JONES BURDETTE |