The year of shame by William Watson With an introduction by the Bishop of Hereford |
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| XI. | XI THE BARD-IN-WAITING |
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 | The year of shame by William Watson |  |
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XI
THE BARD-IN-WAITING
Treachery's apologist, whose numbers rung,
But yesterday, remonstrant in my ear;
Thou to whom England seems a mistress dear,
Insatiable of honey from thy tongue:
Because I crouch not fawning slaves among,
How is my service proved the less sincere?
Have not I also deemed her without peer?
Her beauty have not I too seen and sung?
But for the love I bore her lofty ways,
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And lovely is she still, her maiden lips
Pressed to the lips whose foam around her plays!
But on her brow's benignant star whose rays
Lit them that sat in darkness, lo! the eclipse.
| The year of shame by William Watson | |