Poems, Dialogues in Verse and Epigrams By Walter Savage Landor: Edited with notes by Charles G. Crump |
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 | Poems, Dialogues in Verse and Epigrams |  |
IV. TO THE EMPEROR OF THE FRENCH.
Pleas'd was I when you told me how
In hat that buffeted the brow
And mason's loose habiliment
With masons thro' Ham's gate you went.
Heartily glad was I to see
A prisoner, though a prince, set free.
In hat that buffeted the brow
And mason's loose habiliment
With masons thro' Ham's gate you went.
Heartily glad was I to see
A prisoner, though a prince, set free.
“Prince!” said I, “you've escaped two worst
Of evils.”
Of evils.”
“I have known a first,”
Said you, “but that is only one,
Tell me the other.”
Said you, “but that is only one,
Tell me the other.”
“'Tis a throne.”
I could not add what now I might,
It keeps the worthy out of sight,
Nor lets the sitter sit upright.
It keeps the worthy out of sight,
Nor lets the sitter sit upright.
Can there be pleasure to keep down
In rusty chains a struggling town?
Can there be any to hear boom
Your cannon o'er the walls of Rome?
Or shows it strength to break a word
As easily as girls a cord
Of flimsy cotton, when the bell
Calls them to dinner? . . to rebel
Against rebellion in your eyes
Is criminal, to crouch is wise.
Louis! your father thought not so;
His sceptre he disdain'd to owe
To falsehood; all his cares he bent
To make the realm he ruled content.
He proved, what many people doubt
As often as they look about,
A wonderful unheard of thing . .
An honest man may be a king.
In rusty chains a struggling town?
Can there be any to hear boom
Your cannon o'er the walls of Rome?
Or shows it strength to break a word
As easily as girls a cord
Of flimsy cotton, when the bell
Calls them to dinner? . . to rebel
Against rebellion in your eyes
Is criminal, to crouch is wise.
Louis! your father thought not so;
275
To falsehood; all his cares he bent
To make the realm he ruled content.
He proved, what many people doubt
As often as they look about,
A wonderful unheard of thing . .
An honest man may be a king.
| Poems, Dialogues in Verse and Epigrams | |