Explore "When I Have Borne in Memory" by Alice Meynell on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
WHEN I have borne in memory what has tamed
Great nations; how ennobling thoughts depart,
What men change swords for ledgers, and desert
The student's bower for gold,-some fears unnamed
I had, my country!-am I to be blamed?
Now, when I think of thee, and what thou art,
Verily, in the bottom of my heart
Of those unfilial fears I am ashamed.
For dearly must we prize thee; we do find / In thee a bulwark for the cause of men; / And I by my affection was beguiled: / What wonder if a Poet now and then, / Among the many movements of his mind, / Felt for thee as a lover or a child!