Cheer, courtiers! round the splendid spread,— <br />The board that groans with shame and plate; <br />Still fawning to the sham-crowned head <br />That hopes its brass will turn its fate! <br />Drink till the comer last is full, <br />And never hear in revels' lull, <br />Grim Vengeance forging arrows fleet, <br />Whilst I gnaw at the crust <br />Of Exile in the dust— <br />But honour makes it sweet! <br /> <br />Ye cheaters in the trickster's fame, <br />Who dupe yourself and trickster-chief, <br />In blazing cafes spend the gain, <br />But draw the blind lest at his thief <br />Some fresh-made beggar gives a glance <br />And interrupts with steel the dance! <br />But let him toilsomely tramp by, <br />As I myself afar <br />Follow no gilded car <br />In ways of honesty. <br /> <br />Ye troopers who shot mothers down, <br />And marshals whose brave cannonade <br />Broke infant arms and split the stone <br />Where slumbered age and guileless maid,— <br />Though blood is the cup you fill, <br />Pretend it 'rosy' wine, and still <br />Hail cannon 'king,' and steel the 'queen!' <br />But I prefer to sup <br />From Philip Sidney's cup,— <br />True soldier's draught serene. <br /> <br />O workmen, seen by me sublime, <br />When wrenched ye from the tyrant, peace! <br />Can you be dazed by tinselled crime, <br />And find no foe beneath the fleece? <br />Build places where fortunes feast, <br />And on your backs bear loads of beast, <br />Though once such masters you made flee! <br />But then, like me, you ate <br />Food of an endless fete,— <br />The bread of Liberty!<br /><br />Victor Marie Hugo<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/imperial-revels/
