If I've dared laugh at you, Robert Browning, <br />'Tis with eyes that with you have often wept: <br />You have oftener left me smiling or frowning, <br />Than any beside, one bard except. <br /> <br />But once you spoke to me, storm-tongued poet, <br />A trivial word in an idle hour; <br />But thrice I looked on your face and the glow it <br />Bore from the flame of the inward power. <br /> <br />But you'd many a friend you never knew of, <br />Your words lie hid in a hundred hearts, <br />And thousands of hands that you've grasped but few of <br />Would be raised to shield you from slander's darts. <br /> <br />For you lived in the sight of the land that owned you, <br />You faced the trial, and stood the test: <br />They have piled you a cairn that would fain have stoned you: <br />You have spoken your message and earned your rest.<br /><br />James Kenneth Stephen<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-parodist-s-apology/
