Edward Cracroft Lefroy: His Life and Poems including a Reprint of Echoes from Theocritus: By Wilfred Austin Gill: With a Critical Estimate of the Sonnets by the late John Addington Symonds |
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THE BEST ANSWER |
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 | Edward Cracroft Lefroy: His Life and Poems |  |
XCVIII
THE BEST ANSWER
Say on. You know how dead-alive I am.
Some men would wince to see their idols flung
From dim-lit darkness where so late they hung,
And turned adrift for jeers, and labelled “sham.”
But I (you know me), mild as any lamb,
Give up my heroes to your slashing tongue,
Give up my martyrs to be burned and hung,
And keep my lips, and bless not, if you damn.
And when at length the wordy storm has waned,
Still bright the sky! The rifted clouds reveal
The same unchanging sun. Two things are gained.
My heart is tempered to a firmer steel,
And your true self comes out to soothe and heal.
But since you stirred me not, I am not pained.
April 1891.
| Edward Cracroft Lefroy: His Life and Poems | |