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Rudyard Kipling
Edgar Allan Poe
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You are here: Home » British/American Poets » Rudyard Kipling » The Portent
"The Prophet and the Country"
From "Debits and Credits" (1919-1923)
You are here: Home » British/American Poets » Rudyard Kipling » The Portent
The Portent
Horace, BK. V. Ode 20."The Prophet and the Country"
From "Debits and Credits" (1919-1923)
0h, late withdrawn from human-kind And following dreams we never knew! Varus, what dream has Fate assigned To trouble you? Such virtue as commends of law Of Virtue to the vulgar horde Suffices not. You needs must draw A righteous sword; And, flagrant in well-doing, smite The priests of Bacchus at their fane, Lest any worshipper invite The God again. Whence public strife and naked crime And-deadlier than the cup you shun-- A people schooled to mock, in time, All law--not one. Cease, then, to fashion State-made sin, Nor give thy children cause to doubt That Virtue springs from Iron within-- Not lead without.
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