The Poems of Sir William Watson 1878-1935 |
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TO ONE WHO ACCUSED ME OF POLITICAL
APOSTASY |
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| II. |
| III. |
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| I. |
| II. |
 | The Poems of Sir William Watson |  |
24
TO ONE WHO ACCUSED ME OF POLITICAL APOSTASY
When reek of massacre filled the eastern skies,Who among singers sang for Man but me?
These lute-strings were a scourge to tyranny
When you turned listless from those anguished cries.
A hundred times, when all the worldly-wise
Kept comfortable silence, I spoke free.
And would you now begrudge me liberty
To use my own brain, see with my own eyes?
When you hung rearward, I was in the van,
Among the whizzing arrows; and to-day,
Because in one thing I reshape my creed,
You cry “Apostate!”—Liberalism indeed!
Give me the Liberalism that guards for Man
His right to think his thought and say his say.
| The Poems of Sir William Watson | |