The Lost Leader by Robert Browning
A speaker accuses a once-revered leader of abandoning his devoted followers for silver and a ribbon of honor. The speaker vows that the group will continue without him, rejects his return, and hopes he will receive pardon in heaven.
By Robert Browning · Genre: Political Poetry, Lyric Poetry · 431 words
First lines
Just for a handful of silver he left us, / Just for a riband to stick in his coat -- / Found the one gift of which fortune bereft us, / Lost all the others she lets us devote; / They, with the gold to give, doled him out silver, / So much was theirs who so little allowed: / How all our copper had gone for his service! / Rags -- were they purple, his heart had been proud! / We that had loved him so, followed him, honored him, / Lived in his mild and magnificent eye, / Learned his great language, caught his clear accents, / Made him our pattern to live and to die! / Shakespeare was of us, Milton was for us, / Burns, Shelley, were with us, -- they watch from their graves! / He alone breaks from the van and the freemen, / -- He alone sinks to the rear and the slaves! / We shall march prospering, -- not through his presence; / Songs may inspirit us, -- not from his lyre; / Deeds will be done, -- while he boasts his quiescence, / Still bidding crouch whom the rest bade aspire: / Blot out his name, then, record one lost soul more, / One task more declined, one more footpath untrod, / One more devils'-triumph and sorrow for angels, / One wrong more to man, one more insult to God! / Life's night begins: let him never come back to us! / There would be doubt, hesitation and pain, / Forced praise on our part -- the glimmer of twilight, / Never glad confident morning again! / Best fight on well, for we taught him -- strike gallantly, / Menace our heart ere we master his own; / Then let him receive the new knowledge and wait us, / Pardoned in heaven, the first by the throne!
Genres
- Political Poetry — The speaker condemns a leader's abandonment of the freemen and declares that his former followers will continue their cause without him.
- Lyric Poetry — Rhymed verse gives concentrated expression to the followers' former devotion, present anger, and refusal to welcome their leader back.
Tags
political defection · betrayal · leadership · liberty · forgiveness
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The Lost Leader is listed on Textopian as a poem by Robert Browning, dated Date unknown.
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- Work type: Poem
- Author: Robert Browning
- Date: Date unknown
- Language: English
- Genres: Political Poetry, Lyric Poetry
- Length: 431 words
- Structure: 1 section, 1 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Standard (8th-9th Grade)
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