Great captain if you will! great Duke! great Slave! <br />Great minion of the crown! - but a great man <br />He was not! He? the iron instrument <br />Of mere authority! the atheist <br />Of a conventional and most earthy duty! <br />To whom the powers that be were simply not <br />Of God-but in His stead! Shall we belie <br />All righteous instinct and profane all truth, <br />By calling great a man without a soul? <br />One who, apart from the despotic wills <br />Of crowned oppressors, knew no right, no wrong. <br />No faith, no country, and no brotherhood? <br />If such a man were great, may God most High <br />Spare henceforth to our universal race <br />All greatness, seeing it may sometimes be <br />A rigid, kindiess battlement of Power <br />Self throned and sanctioned only by the sword. <br />And if' as Englishmen are proud to boast, <br />He was their greatest countryman-alas! <br />For England's national sterility! <br />But they who thus belaud him, lie, as all <br />True patriots most feelingly perceive. <br />Besides, he was not England's son at all: <br />He was an Irishman, with whom the name <br />Of Ireland was a scoff! An Irishman, <br />Who for a hireling's meed and ministry, <br />Could tear away from his inhuman heart <br />The pleading image of his native land.<br /><br />Charles Harpur<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/wellington-3/
