Scatter, as from an unextinguished hearth Ashes and sparks, my words among mankind! Be through my lips to unawakened earth The trumpet of a prophecy! O wind, Fragment: "Wake the W AKE the serpent not- lest he sleeping go, Let him crawl which yet lies Through the deep grass of the meadow! Song to the Men of England I. EN of England, wherefore plough care The rich robes your tyrants wear? II. Wherefore feed, and clothe, and save, Those ungrateful drones who would Drain your sweat nay, drink your blood? III. Wherefore, Bees of England, forge That these stingless drones may spoil The forced produce of your toil? IV. Have ye leisure, comfort, calm, With your pain and with your fear? V. The seed ye sow, another reaps; VI. Sow seed, but let no tyrant reap; Find wealth, let no impostor heap; Weave robes, - let not the idle wear; Forge arms, in your defence to bear. VII. Shrink to your cellars, holes, and cells; In halls ye deck another dwells. Why shake the chains ye wrought? Ye see The steel ye tempered glance on ye. VIII. With plough and spade, and hoe and loom, Trace your grave, and build your tomb, And weave your winding-sheet, till fair England be your sepulchre. a lovely one But thou art fled, gone down the dreary road, That leads to Sorrow's most obscure abode. Thou sittest on the hearth of pale despair, For thine own sake I cannot follow thee. S from an ancestral oak Two empty ravens sound their clarion, Yell by yell, and croak by croak, When we scent the noonday smoke Of fresh human carrion: II. As two gibbering night-birds flit And the stars are none, or few: |