St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1889-03-23
a NINETEENTH CENTURY KING.

NH6 ACSEA)
4 believed the souls august
~ ancestors that long are dust
oeneid me II this hour, 'twouid wake
shame in my own soul keen OF ache.
E"r their dim ghosts would seem to chide
rom snAdowy vantages OF pride,
Ineir hollow eyes would seem 70 hold
Remembrance and rebuke untold,
5heir spectral lips would seem to rain
On my degeneracy disdain.
for how am L thus girt By thraN
Of Qufckening freedom, King as all3
MY parliaments, whose rafters ring
with statesmen's edicts, ask no King:
NY people. in whom obedience lay
invulnerable but yesterday,
Are now thFong Of myriad throats
Voicing their individual votes:
Debating laws, ordaining planA q
In All save name republicans.
And when my forefathers held
Stanchcst auxiliaries OF ED,
MY mobiles, born custodians, each,
Vi every verge our sway doth reach.
Are stripped OF Ill their state once meant
Save empty and idle precedent
No more about our thrones proud piers
They group, its guardian halberdiers,
With loyalty in their least breath
And duty another word for death!
Their sires' tough mail-shirts they forsako
For broadcloth garb Of modish make:
Is dainty Difference touched with sloth:
The swords bold warriors joyed TO hurl
Are canes that smooth HANDS lightly twirl;
Thc intrepid charger. Wild OF breed,
Has grown the eQuestrian's neat-groomo'
steed:
The blum retainers, hot for fray,
As lv ried lackeys cringe today.
What wonder II should deem 1t strange
To rule q realm SO swept by change.
Where Onlv in legend now NAV live
The monarch's lost prerogative:
What wonder il I should long to nee
Tnis hollow and senscless pageantry.
That sets me in mimic school-b0y dread
AS its imperial hgure-head-
Between thousand schemes. plots, lies.
Planted the incarnate compromise!
No part bear in civic strife
That pricks conservatives to life
And makes the wounds thus dealt them nh
With lherty's awakening thrill.
Aloof dwell, by power disowned,
A mere tradition crowned and thronedi
Jsometimes dream that can trace
Insid;ous mockcry in the face
or him who leans most low to kiss
My hand with courtliest emphasis;
sometimes fancy almost feel
The attendants 1t my side conceal
Thoughts they would tremble TO declare,
Yet whose dumb sarcasms freight the air!
At balls OF pomp, while nattery floats
Among my beams her myriad notes,
While sycophancy's unctuous phrase
Forsets the false heart it betrays,
While caste from rcverent censor swings
The dzzying yapors dear TO kings,
While fashion, where my foot hath trod,
Spancls for one consentlent nod
Oh. then hear the night-wfnds wake
Through many distant dell and brake.
Where moon may brood or planets shine
In lands that are yet are not mine!
Then yearn for the bountcous bslms
OF natures clamo.ings or her calmS-
The unfevered life, the fretless hope.
The horizon OF divulgont scope,
The statecraft Of the stealthy seeds,
The wide democrac:es Of weeds,
The birds patrician claims OF class,
The prosperous commonwealth OF grasA
The ministries Of heat or cold,
Tie suns exchequer OF lavish gold.
The blithe republics OF the bees.
The butterflies buoyant anarchloa,
T'he oratory OF air and cloud
with leaves for listeners, low or loud,
Tire church OF meadows and copse and hill.
The ritual OF the brawling rill!
Edgar Fawcett, In America.