Page:A midsummer holiday and other poems (IA midsummerholiday00swin).pdf/175

 'With a hero at head, and a nation Well gagged and well drilled and well cowed, And a gospel of war and damnation, Has not empire a right to be proud? Fools prattle and tattle Of freedom, reason, right, The beauty of duty, The loveliness of light. 'But we know, we believe it, we see it, Force only has power upon earth.' So be it! and ever so be it For souls that are bestial by birth! Let Prussian with Russian Exchange the kiss of slaves: But sea-folk are free folk By grace of winds and waves.