THE TRUE CONFESSION OF GEORGE BARKER
So Providence engineered her
Circumstantial enigmas
And the crown of the objector
Was snatched from me. In wars
The conscientious protestor
Preserves, as worlds sink to force,
The dignified particular–
Particularly one, of course.
"The hackneyed roll-call of chronology"–
Thus autobiography to de Quincey.
And I can understand it, since he
Lived like a footnote to philology.
But the archangelic enumeration
Of unpredictable hegiras–
These, with a little exaggeration,
I could adduce for my admirers.
And so when I saw you, nightmare island,
Fade into the autumnal night
I felt the tears rise up for my land,
But somehow these tears were not quite
As sick as when my belly laughed
Remembering England had given me
The unconditional liberty
To do a job for which I starved.
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