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 ;