George Henry Boker (1823–1890)

LEAR and Cordelia! ’t was an ancient tale

Before thy Shakespeare gave it deathless fame:

The times have changed, the moral is the same.

So, like an outcast, dowerless and pale,

Thy daughter went, and in a foreign gale

Spread her young banner, till its sway became

A wonder to the nations. Days of shame

Are close upon thee: prophets raise their wail.

When the rude Cossack with an outstretched hand

Points his long spear across the narrow sea,—

“Lo! there is England!”—when thy destiny

Storms on thy straw-crowned head, and thou dost stand

Weak, helpless, mad, a by-word in the land,—

God grant thy daughter a Cordelia be!