(cloaked, masked, booted, and with gauntlets of astrakan)

ENEMY INTERLUDE

SHOUTS

Am I too dangerous, that no man can let
This " wild beast" out, but keep it as a pet?
Must I on charity be so sustained,
And never be unwittingly unchained?
Must I be given nothing , lest I take
Too much from the world's trop-plein ? Fake after fake,
Encouraged, must usurp the place is mine?
And yet had I demanded a gold mine,
Or aimed to be dictator of the West,
I could not be regarded as a pest
More than I am by asphalt-inkslinger
Alike, and in-the-manger monied cur —
Nor more askance if my pen were a sword
Excalibur, itching to strike abroad!
What is it that men fear beyond everything?
Obviously an open person. Bring
One of us " truthful ones" too near, their nests
Would be unfeathered. Experience invests
Us with such terrors, us whose tongues are clean,
It is rarely in the high-places we are seen.
If such as I were made too famous, oh
What would he not be doing here below!
Hence very aged men — else ruffians tried —
Are puffed and boosted, flattered and glorified.
The Shaws of this world, they are safe , that's it!
In the toothless head there's no danger for the bit.
So there you have (in this political age)
The secret of the dishonour of the sage —
The one that's young enough to have some teeth,
The one that's suspected honest underneath.