Poems, 1914-1919

<h3><SPAN name="EPITAPH" id="EPITAPH"></SPAN>EPITAPH</h3> <div class="poetry"> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Here</span> murdered by the frenzied, not the free,<br/></span> <span class="i0">Lies the latest monarch of a star-crossed line;<br/></span> <span class="i0">Anointed Emperor by right divine,<br/></span> <span class="i0">From Arctic icefields to the Aral sea,<br/></span> <span class="i0">From Warsaw to the walls of Tartary.<br/></span> <span class="i0">His country’s travail claimed a high design;<br/></span> <span class="i0">Too stubborn to respond, he shrank supine<br/></span> <span class="i0">Before the large demand of destiny.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">Bereft of crown, and throne, and hearth and name,<br/></span> <span class="i0">Grief lent him majesty, and suffering<br/></span> <span class="i0">Gave him a more than regal diadem.<br/></span> <span class="i0">His people kissed the desecrated hem<br/></span> <span class="i0">Of robes not now of splendour but of shame,<br/></span> <span class="i0">And knelt before their undiminished King.<br/></span></div> </div></div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="page_026" id="page_026"></SPAN>{26}</span></p> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />