Page:Backblock Ballads and Later Verses (C.J. Dennis, 1918).djvu/112



Gyved and chained in his father's home, He toiled 'neath a conqueror's rule; Bowed to the earth in the land of his birth: The Slave who was Son of a Fool.

Poor remnant he of a conquered race, Long shorn of its power and pride, No reverence shone in his sullen face When they told how that race had died. But the meed that he gave to his father's name Was a down-drooped head and a flush of shame.

Oh, the Fool had reigned full many a year In the Land of the Bounteous Gifts, Dreaming and drifting, with never a fear, As a doomed fool pleasantly drifts; And he ate his fill of the gifts she gave— The Fool who was sire of a hopeless Slave.