THE RECALCITRANTS

Let us off and search, and find a place

Where yours and mine can be natural lives,

Where no one comes who dissects and dives

And proclaims that ours is a curious case,

That its touch of romance can scarcely grace.

You would think it strange at first, but then

Everything has been strange in its time.

When some one said on a day of the prime

He would bow to no brazen god again

He doubtless dazed the mass of men.

None will recognize us as a pair whose claims

To righteous judgment we care not making;

Who have doubted if breath be worth the taking,

And have no respect for the current fames

Whence the savour has flown while abide the names.

We have found us already shunned, disdained,

And for re-acceptance have not once striven;

Whatever offence our course has given

The brunt thereof we have long sustained.

Well, let us away, scorned unexplained.