Page:The ballad of the White Horse (IA balladofwhitehor00ches).pdf/153

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By one blind idiot world obeyed,Too blind to be abhorred;
"By terror and the cruel talesOf curse in bone and kin,By weird and weakness winning,Accursed from the beginning,By detail of the sinningAnd denial of the sin;
"By thought a crawling ruin,By life a leaping mire,By a broken heart in the breast of the world,And the end of the world's desire;
"By God and man dishonoured,By death and life made vain,Know ye the old barbarian,The barbarian come again —
"When is great talk of trend and tide,And wisdom and destiny,Hail that undying heathenThat is sadder than the sea.
"In what wise men shall smite him,Or the Cross stand up again,Or charity or chivalry,

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