Rulers who neither feel nor see nor know,

But leech-like to their fainting country cling,

Till they drop, blind in blood, without a blow,—

A people starved and stabbed in the untilled field,—

An army, which liberticide and prey

Makes as a two-edged sword to all who wield,—

Golden and sanguine laws which tempt and slay;

Religion, Christless, Godless—a book sealed;

A Senate—Time's worst statute unrepealed,—

Are graves, from which a glorious phantom may