William Wilfred Campbell (1858?-1918)
The Politician
1Carven in leathern mask or brazen face,
2 Were I time's sculptor, I would set this man.
3 Retreating from the truth, his hawk-eyes scan
4The platforms of all public thought for place.
5There wriggling with insinuating grace,
6 He takes poor hope and effort by the hand,
7 And flatters with half-truths and accents bland,
8Till even zeal and earnest love grow base.
9Knowing no right, save power's grim right-of-way;
10 No nobleness, save life's ignoble praise;
11No future, save this sordid day to day;
12 He is the curse of these material days:
13Juggling with mighty wrongs and mightier lies,
14This worshipper of Dagon and his flies!
Notes
14] Dagon: pagan deity of the Philistines, an idol.
Online text copyright © 2009, Ian Lancashire (the Department of English) and the University of Toronto.
Published by the Web Development Group, Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries.
Original text: The Collected Poems of Wilfred Campbell (New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1905), p. 284. PS 8455 A6A17. Robarts Library.
First publication date:
1904
RPO poem editor: Ian Lancashire
RP edition: RPO 1998.
Recent editing: 4:2002/1/17
Composition date:
1904
Composition date note: ca. 1904
Form: Italian Sonnet (Variant)
Rhyme: abbaabba cdcdee
Other poems by William Wilfred Campbell
