Panama and Other Poems Narrative and Occasional By Stephen Phillips: With a Frontispiece by Joseph Pennell |
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THE RIGHT OF ASYLUM |
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THE RIGHT OF ASYLUM
Easy the cry, while vengeance now is wrought,And from his lair the Anarchist is burned;
“Shut be our harbours, closed be every port,
And from our shore be every alien turned!”
Yet while the clamour and pursuit is hot,
And public anger public madness breeds,
Be it not soon nor easily forgot
That England thus an ancient title cedes.
For centuries a pillow hath she spread
For all that widowed goes, and wandering;
And in her lap hath laid the unhappy head
Of broken statesman, and of outcast King.
Shall she, alarmed by that small horde, deny
This old sea-haven to world-misery?
November 1, 1911.
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