The Rhodes Memorial at Oxford The Work of Cecil Rhodes: A Sonnet-Sequence: By Theodore Watts-Dunton |
 |
| I. |
| II. |
VII
Old Africa and New
|
 | The Rhodes Memorial at Oxford |  |
26
VII
Old Africa and New
Should that fierce leader come who left, they say,
‘A cloud of vultures and a cloud of smoke’
For trail behind him when his warriors broke
Upon the meek Mashonas, made for prey—
Should he come here to challenge this new sway,
To fight the shade of Rhodes whose master-stroke
Shattered the bloody Matabele yoke,
Full well we know which warrior-ghost will stay.
27
The midnight battle of the rival shades.
Full well we know that, ere the moonlight fades,
Your foe (as on that day when sole you sate
Amid the threatening chiefs in high debate)
Will be transfigured to a spectre friend.
| The Rhodes Memorial at Oxford | |