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Home  »  The Little Book of Modern Verse  »  Let Me No More a Mendicant

Jessie B. Rittenhouse, ed. (1869–1948). The Little Book of Modern Verse. 1917.

Arthur Colton

Let Me No More a Mendicant

LET me no more a mendicant

Without the gate

Of the world’s kingly palace wait;

Morning is spent,

The sentinels change and challenge in the tower,

Now slant the shadows eastward hour by hour.

Open the door, O Seneschal! Within

I see them sit,

The feasters, daring destiny with wit,

Casting to win

Or lose their utmost, and men hurry by

At offices of confluent energy.

Let me not here a mendicant

Without the gate

Linger from dayspring till the night is late,

And there are sent

All homeless stars to loiter in the sky,

And beggared midnight winds to wander by.