Dramatic Scenes With Other Poems, Now First Printed. By Barry Cornwall [i.e. Bryan Waller Procter]. Illustrated |
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TO A MYTH. |
 | Dramatic Scenes |  |
357
TO A MYTH.
Judge of words without a meaning;
Arbiter 'tween black and white;
Fusing all the shades of difference
Into day or into night.
Arbiter 'tween black and white;
Fusing all the shades of difference
Into day or into night.
Cunning, cheating, grim magician;
Plunderer both of age and youth;
Slave of forms and senseless customs;
Laugher at the light of truth.
Plunderer both of age and youth;
Slave of forms and senseless customs;
Laugher at the light of truth.
Has my life, then, all been wasted,
Threading thy bewildering ways?
Have I lost the hopeful morning?
Spoiled the evening of my days?
Threading thy bewildering ways?
Have I lost the hopeful morning?
Spoiled the evening of my days?
Down, thou Shape of hair and ermine!
Quit thy high disgracèd place.
Down, and meet thy nobler brother,
Simple Justice, face to face.
Quit thy high disgracèd place.
Down, and meet thy nobler brother,
Simple Justice, face to face.
358
See, with what a brightening aspect,
He divides the right from wrong;
Mark, how swift his sentence follows;
Mark, how all content the throng.
He divides the right from wrong;
Mark, how swift his sentence follows;
Mark, how all content the throng.
But Thou—swollen and paltry figure,
Blown with vanity, stuffed with straw,
Pander now, and now a Tyrant,
Dar'st thou call thyself—“The Law?”
Blown with vanity, stuffed with straw,
Pander now, and now a Tyrant,
Dar'st thou call thyself—“The Law?”
Where is all the heaped confusion,
Whereat shrinking Truth repines?
Wordy nonsense? leagues of charges,
With their sixes turned to nines?
Whereat shrinking Truth repines?
Wordy nonsense? leagues of charges,
With their sixes turned to nines?
Where the ruinous, rascal pleadings,
Drenched with spite, and lies, and ire?
Twaddling trash, delays, devices?
—Quick, let's heap the funeral pyre!
Drenched with spite, and lies, and ire?
Twaddling trash, delays, devices?
—Quick, let's heap the funeral pyre!
Quick! Send here the fusty parchments,
Smeared and spoiled a million ways;
All the senseless, worthless rubbish.
Now then,—set them all ablaze!
Smeared and spoiled a million ways;
All the senseless, worthless rubbish.
Now then,—set them all ablaze!
| Dramatic Scenes | |