The Saint and the Hunchback by W.B. Yeats — Read

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HUNCHBACK

Stand up and lift your hand and bless / A man that finds great bitterness / In thinking of his lost renown.

A Roman Caesar is held down / Under this hump.

SAINT

God tries each man / According to a different plan.

I shall not cease to bless because / I lay about me with the taws / That night and morning I may thrash / Greek Alexander from my flesh, / Augustus Caesar, and after these / That great rogue Alcibiades.

HUNCHBACK

To all that in your flesh have stood / And blessed, I give my gratitude, / Honoured by all in their degrees, / But most to Alcibiades.

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