Towards democracy

462 Towards Democracy

EMPIRE

Blind, fooled, and staggering from her throne, I saw: her fall,

Clutching at the gaud of Empire ;

And wondering, round ser, sons and daughter-nations stood— .

What madness had possessed her;

But when they lifted her, the heart was dead,

Withered within the body, and all the veins

Were choked with yellow dirt.

y ENGLAND, fooled and blind, Come look, if but a moment, on yourself!

See, through your streets—what should be living sap of your free blood—

These brutish squalid joyless drink-sodden populations flowing ;

And in your mills and factories the weary faces, sad monotonous lives,

Or miles of cottage tenements with weakly red-eyed children, worn-out mothers. :

See, from your offices and shops at closing hours, | the morbid stream—as from unhealthy glands within the body—

Crowds issuing of anemic youths and girls, pale, pre- ° maturely sexual,

With flabby minds and bodies (held together chiefly by _

their clothes) and perky pick-me-up manners ;