Ballads for the Times (Now first collected,) Geraldine, A Modern Pyramid, Bartenus, A Thousand Lines, and other poems. By Martin F. Tupper. A new Edition, enlarged and revised |
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
| I. |
| II. |
| III. |
|
|
|
 | Ballads for the Times |  |
And yet how little had he err'd,
That on his ear the bitter word
Of harsh reproach should fall,—
“Is it then thus, ungrateful boy,
Thou wouldst his dearest hope destroy
Who lent thee life and all?
Why did I save thee, years agone,
Beneath the tottering Bowther-stone,
Misfortune's outcast son?
Why did I warm thee on my hearth,
Nor crush the viper in its birth,
O thou presumptuous one?”
That on his ear the bitter word
Of harsh reproach should fall,—
“Is it then thus, ungrateful boy,
Thou wouldst his dearest hope destroy
Who lent thee life and all?
Why did I save thee, years agone,
Beneath the tottering Bowther-stone,
Misfortune's outcast son?
Why did I warm thee on my hearth,
Nor crush the viper in its birth,
O thou presumptuous one?”
| Ballads for the Times | |