POEM: THE DESPOT

The garden mould was damp and chill;

Winter had had his brutal will

Since over all the year's content

His devastating legions went.

The Spring's bright banners came: there woke

Millions of little growing folk

Who thrilled to know the winter done,

Gave thanks, and strove towards the sun.

Not so the elect; reserved, and slow

To trust a stranger-sun and grow,

They hesitated, cowered and hid,

Waiting to see what others did.

Yet even they, a little, grew,

Put out prim leaves to day and dew,

And lifted level formal heads

In their appointed garden beds.

The gardener came: he coldly loved

The flowers that lived as he approved,

That duly, decorously grew

As he, the despot, meant them to.

He saw the wildlings flower more brave

And bright than any cultured slave;

Yet, since he had not set them there,

He hated them for being fair.

So he uprooted, one by one,

The free things that had loved the sun,

The happy, eager, fruitful seeds

Who had not known that they were weeds.