The Poetical Works of George Barlow In Ten [Eleven] Volumes |
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| XI. |
 | The Poetical Works of George Barlow |  |
317
SONNET I
A PRIME MINISTER
With clank of hammer and with clink of steel
The German dockyards echo, day and night.
Unnumbered legions ripen for the fight
While English statesmen fawn and cringe and kneel.
In English dockyards men without a meal
Stand idle, sullen, in most piteous plight.
Asquith, found brazen in the whole world's sight,
Stamps truth to dust with a most shameless heel.
Our Navy chained, mishandled, and held back,
Pants feebly along the inexorable track,
While the grim German Navy swells apace.
Though this man knows and England knows he lies,
No thunder threatens from the silent skies
And no truth's Angel smites him in the face.
December 21, 1909.
| The Poetical Works of George Barlow | |