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. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...TO A YOUNG BEAUTY by WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS TO MY DEAR AND LOVING HUSBAND by ANNE BRADSTREET VERSES WRITTEN IN AN ALBUM OF A LADY'S COMMON-PLACE BOOK by THOMAS MOORE TO THEOPHILE GAUTIER by THEODORE FAULLAIN DE BANVILLE DREAM OF LIFE by MARY ELIZABETH BROOKS THREE EPISTLES TO G. LLOYD ON A PASSAGE FROM HOMER'S ILIAD: 2 by JOHN BYROM |