Explore "The King's Image" by Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Of iron were his arms; they could have held / The need of half the kingdom up; and in / His brow were iron atoms too. Thus was / He built. His heart, observe, was wrought of gold, / Burnished; it dazzled one to look at it. / His feet were carved of clay -- and so he fell.
Clay unto clay shall perish and return. / The tooth of rust shall gnaw the iron down. / The conqueror of time, gold must endure.
Thou great amalgam! Suffering in thyself, / The while inflicting still the certain fate / Of thy disharmony. From Nature's law, / Unto her law, thy doom appeals; bids thee / To fear the metal sinews of thy soul, / And scorn the dust on which thou totterest; / But save, oh, save the heart of gold for one / Who did, beholding, trust in it.