Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895.

Thomas Hood 1799–1845

Lear

Hood-Tho

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

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,

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!