| |
| THERE is a wall of which the stones | |
| Are lies and bribes and dead men’s bones. | |
| And wrongfully this evil wall | |
| Denies what all men made for all, | |
| And shamelessly this wall surrounds | 5 |
| Our homestead and our native grounds. | |
| |
| But I will gather and I will ride, | |
| And I will summon a countryside, | |
| And many a man shall hear my halloa | |
| Who never had thought the horn to follow; | 10 |
| And many a man shall ride with me | |
| Who never had thought on earth to see | |
| High Justice in her armoury. | |
| |
| When we find them where they stand, | |
| A mile of men on either hand, | 15 |
| I mean to charge from right away | |
| And force the flanks of their array, | |
| And press them inward from the plains, | |
| And drive them clamoring down the lanes, | |
| And gallop and harry and have them down, | 20 |
| And carry the gates and hold the town. | |
| Then shall I rest me from my ride | |
| With my great anger satisfied. | |
| |
| Only, before I eat and drink, | |
| When I have killed them all, I think | 25 |
| That I will batter their carven names, | |
| And slit the pictures in their frames, | |
| And burn for scent their cedar door, | |
| And melt the gold their women wore, | |
| And hack their horses at the knees, | 30 |
| And hew to death their timber trees, | |
| And plough their gardens deep and through— | |
| And all these things I mean to do | |
| For fear perhaps my little son | |
| Should break his hands, as I have done. | 35 |
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