Arthur Quiller-Couch, comp. The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse. 1922.
The KingMary Elizabeth Coleridge (1861–1907)
I
When he was neither merry nor sad;
It was but a very little thing,
Yet it made his servant glad.
Between a smile and a smother’d sigh.
Whether he meant it, who can tell?
But the man went out to die.