IV.

Brute throats that miss the collar,

Bowed backs that ask the whip,

Stretched hands that lack the dollar,

And many a lie-seared lip,

Forefeel and foreshow for us signs as funereal

As the signs that were regal of yore and imperial;

We shall pass as the princes they served,

We shall reap what our fathers deserved,

And the place that was England's be taken

By one that is worthier than she,

And the yoke of her empire be shaken

Like spray from the sea.

A Midsummer Holiday and Other Poems · 第 114 / 129 题