Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895.
Thomas Hood 17991845Lear
Hood-ThoA
Thron’d upon straw, and mantled with the wind—
For pity, my own tears have made me blind
That I might never see my children’s frown;
And maybe madness like a friend has thrown
A folded fillet over my dark mind,
So that unkindly speech may sound for kind,—
Albeit I know not.—I am childish grown,
And have not gold to purchase wit withal,
I that have once maintain’d most royal state,
A very bankrupt now that may not call
My child, my child—all-beggar’d save in tears,
Wherewith I daily weep an old man’s fate,
Foolish—and blind—and overcome with years!