| |
SEATED I see the two again, | |
| But not alone; they entertain | |
| A little angel unaware, | |
| With face as round as is the moon; | |
| A royal guest with flaxen hair, | 5 |
| Who, throned upon his lofty chair, | |
| Drums on the table with his spoon, | |
| Then drops it careless on the floor, | |
| To grasp at things unseen before. | |
| Are these celestial manners? these | 10 |
| The ways that win, the arts that please? | |
| Ah, yes; consider well the guest, | |
| And whatsoe’er he does seems best; | |
| He ruleth by the right divine | |
| Of helplessness, so lately born | 15 |
| In purple chambers of the morn, | |
| As sovereign over thee and thine. | |
| He speaketh not, and yet there lies | |
| A conversation in his eyes; | |
| The golden silence of the Greek, | 20 |
| The gravest wisdom of the wise, | |
| Not spoken in language, but in looks | |
| More legible than printed books, | |
| As if he could but would not speak. | |
| And now, O monarch absolute, | 25 |
| Thy power is put to proof; for lo! | |
| Resistless, fathomless, and slow, | |
| The nurse comes rustling like the sea, | |
| And pushes back thy chair and thee, | |
| And so good night to King Canute. | 30 |
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