RIZPAH, 1883.
(Written expressly for this collection).
RAILING, railing, railing, the crowd from town and lea,
When William's voice was heard, "O poet a peer to be!"
"Why should he call me, I wonder, in that high-born house to go,
For my politics won't bear searching, and my creed's rather mixed, you know?
"We should be laughed at, my William, 'twould be the jest of the town;
Even the knights would jeer, and the press sure to cry it down.
Why, I can but rule my own land; when I tried awhile for the stage,