| Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895. |
| |
| Lear |
| | | Thomas Hood (1799–1845) |
| |
| |
| A POOR old king with sorrow for my crown, | |
| Thron’d upon straw, and mantled with the wind— | |
| For pity, my own tears have made me blind | |
| That I might never see my children’s frown; | |
| And maybe madness like a friend has thrown | 5 |
| A folded fillet over my dark mind, | |
| So that unkindly speech may sound for kind,— | |
| Albeit I know not.—I am childish grown, | |
| And have not gold to purchase wit withal, | |
| I that have once maintain’d most royal state, | 10 |
| A very bankrupt now that may not call | |
| My child, my child—all-beggar’d save in tears, | |
| Wherewith I daily weep an old man’s fate, | |
| Foolish—and blind—and overcome with years! | |
| |
|
|
|
