REFERENCES

HOLDEN: Our Country's Flag (a history).

WILDER: Stand by the Flag!

Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean.

BEECHER: The American Flag (History of).

DRAKE: American Flag.

WHITTIER: Barbara Frietchie.

KEY: Star Spangled Banner.

RILEY: Old Glory.

IT

THE FOOL'S PRAYER

EDWARD ROWLAND SILL

T was a day of riotous joy and feasting in the royal palace. The haughty monarch, ruling by "divine right," had turned from the cares of rigorous, perhaps cruel, rulership to feasting and jesting to relieve a heart, it may be, "red with wrong." He had been absolute in power. On every hand, fawning courtiers bowed to him and flattered him. Great was his delight as he saw at his banquet-board the noblest princes and lords of his dominions. At the conclusion of the royal feast, the King, flushed with wine and swelled with pride and bigotry, bade his jester give them some new sport as a fitting climax to their joy. Indeed, the proud monarch, spurning even things divine, bade the fool in sport,

"Kneel now and make for us a prayer."

The fool knelt, and the following poem, with keenest insight, recites the prayer and its sequel, and reveals how the arrows of truth hushed the mocking court and pierced the haughty, insolent heart of the King.

THE FOOL'S PRAYER*

The royal feast was done; the King
Sought some new sport to banish care,
And to his jester cried: "Sir Fool,

Kneel now,

and make for us a prayer!"

* Used by permission of, and by special arrangement with, Houghton Mifflin Company, the authorized publishers of the works of E. R. Sill.

The jester doffed his cap and bells,
And stood the mocking court before;
They could not see the bitter smile

Behind the painted grin he wore.

He bowed his head, and bent his knee
Upon the monarch's silken stool;
His pleading voice arose: "O Lord,
Be merciful to me, a fool!

"No pity, Lord, could change the heart
From red with wrong to white as wool:
The rod must heal the sin; but, Lord,
Be merciful to me, a fool!

"T is not by guilt the onward sweep
Of truth and right, O Lord, we stay;
'Tis by our follies that so long

We hold the earth from heaven away.

"These clumsy feet still in the mire

Go crushing blossoms without end; These hard, well-meaning hands we thrust Among the heartstrings of a friend.

"The ill-timed truth we might have kept -
Who knows how sharp it pierced and stung!
The word we had not sense to say-
Who knows how grandly it had rung!

"Our faults no tenderness should ask,

The chastening stripes must cleanse them all;

"Earth bears no balsam for mistakes;

Men crown the knave, and scourge the tool That did his will; but Thou, O Lord,

Be merciful to me, a fool!"

THE FOOL'S PRAYER

The room was hushed; in silence rose
The King, and sought his gardens cool,
And walked apart, and murmured low,
"Be merciful to me, a fool!"

SUGGESTIVE EXERCISES

97

1. What is shown of the King from the fact that he would suggest such a "new sport to banish care"?

2. Explain "mocking court."

3. What caused the "bitter smile behind the painted grin he wore"?

4. What tells whether or not the fool's prayer is from his heart? 5. Where did the fool get the idea of a heart "red with wrong"? 6. Explain

""Tis by our follies that so long

We hold the earth from heaven away."

7. Explain fully "crushing blossoms without end."

8. In what sense did "men crown the knave and scourge the tool that did his will"?

9. Who was the crowned knave?

10. Why was the room hushed at the close of the prayer? Why did not the mocking court laugh now?

11. What was the effect of the prayer on the King?

12. How do you explain the fact that the fool's prayer did not furnish the sport intended?

13. Why does the King adopt the fool's prayer?

14. What additional meaning does the King put into it?

REFERENCES

POPE: The Universal Prayer.

The Pharisee and the Publican (Luke XVIII:10-14).
PROCTER: The Overthrow of Belshazzar.

BYRON Vision of Belshazzar.

SIR HENRY WALTON: Character of a Happy Life.
EVERARD JACK APPLETON: The Fighting Failure.
WALTER C. SMITH: The Self-Exiled.

KNOX: Why Should the Spirit of Mortal Be Proud?
MACKAY: Differences.

H. T. HUTCHINSON: The Fool's Waltz.

GREENE: The Baron's Last Banquet.
LONGFELLOW: Sandalphon.

GINEVRA

SAMUEL ROGERS

HIS poem is one of a collection of pieces in prose

TH

and blank verse which make up the author's "Italy." It commemorates the tragic fate of an innocent but gay young Italian bride who on her wedding night in playful mood, "fluttering with joy, the happiest of the happy," had concealed herself within an old oaken chest whose spring lock "fastened her down forever." The guests sought for her in vain, and not until years had passed was her fate discovered. The chest and a portrait of the lady were shown the poet on his visit to Modena. On seeing these, he wrote the following poem.

GINEVRA

If thou shouldst ever come by choice or chance

To Modena,

Stop at a Palace near the Reggio gate,
Dwelt in of old by one of the Orsini.
Its noble gardens, terrace above terrace,
And rich in fountains, statues, cypresses,
Will long detain thee.

A summer sun

Sets ere one half is seen; but, ere thou go,
Enter the house-prithee, forget it not-
And look a while upon a picture there.
'Tis a lady in her earliest youth,

The very last of that illustrious race,

Done by Zampieri - but by whom I care not.