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Blackberries

by William Allingham
 
 

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[For priests and chieftains, people took of old]

For priests and chieftains, people took of old
No sickly, puny, purblind, halt, or maim'd,
But men of soul and body strong and bold,
Whose vigour, cheer, and confidence outflamed
To animate the timid, warm the cold.
All life is greaten'd still when these are named.
And shall we, in the eternal sphere of thought,
Accept for leaders men whose fitting place
Were hospital or madhouse?—who disgrace
The world they live in, then declare it nought?