NO courtier this, and naught to courts he owed, <br />Fawned not on thrones, hymned not the great and callous, <br />Yet, in one strain, that few remember, showed <br />He had the password of King Oberon's palace. <br /> <br />And seeing a London seamstress's gray fate, <br />He of a human heartstring made a thread, <br />And stitched him such a royal robe of state <br />That Eastern Kings are poorlier habited. <br /> <br />He saw wan Woman toil with famished eyes; <br />He saw her bound, and strove to sing her free. <br />He saw her fall'n; and wrote 'The Bridge of Sighs' - <br />And on it crossed to immortality.<br /><br />William Watson<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/thomas-hood-3/
