Not all the singers of a thousand years <br />Can open English prisons. No. Though hell <br />Opened for Tracian Orpheus, now the spell <br />Of song and art is powerless as the tears <br />That love has shed. You that were full of fears, <br />And mean self-love, shall live to know full well <br />That you yourselves, not he, were pitiable <br />When you met mercy's voice with frowns or jeers. <br /> <br />And did you ask who signed the plea with you? <br />Fools! It was signed already with the sign <br />Of great dead men, of God-like Socrates, <br />Shakespeare and Plato and the Florentine <br />Who conquered form. And all your pretty crew <br />Once, and once only, might have stood with these.<br /><br />Lord Alfred Douglas<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/not-all-the-singers-of-a-thousand-years/
