The Poetical Works of George Barlow In Ten [Eleven] Volumes |
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 | The Poetical Works of George Barlow |  |
334
SONNET XVI
THE WRITING ON THE WALL
“All history is the history of States once powerful and then decaying.
Is Great Britain to be numbered among the decaying States?”
—Joseph Chamberlain.
To count the swallows flying o'er the pond
Or circling round the pump: to sit and doze
While nation after nation gains and grows:
To march thus far, but not a step beyond.
To win an Empire—hugely to despond,
To hurl it from us: the Election shows
That half the nation thus decides. Who knows
What spell has fallen from what enchanter's wand?
We who dictated are content to bend:
To watch our fleets rejected of the sea,—
India, South Africa, in alien hands:
To hear the savage laughter of the lands
Crying, “This was England once. Now this is She;
Proud at the outset, abject at the end.”
December 27, 1910.
| The Poetical Works of George Barlow | |