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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=511013" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>The King's Task</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">After the sack of the City when Rome was sunk to a name,<br>In the years that the lights were darkened, or ever St. Wilfrid<br>came,<br>Low on the borders of Britain (the ancient poets sing)<br>Between the Cliff and the Forest there ruled a Saxon King.<br>Stubborn all were his people from cottar to overlord--<br>Not to be cowed by the cudgel, scarce to be schooled by the<br>sword;<br>Quick to turn at their pleasure, cruel to cross in their mood,<br>And set on paths of their choosing as the hogs of Andred's Wood.<br>Laws they made in the Witan--the laws of flaying and fine--<br>Common, loppage and pannage, the theft and the track of kine--<br>Statutes of tun and of market for the fish and the malt and the <br>meal--<br>The tax on the Bramber packhorse and the tax on the Hastings<br>keel.<br>Over the graves of the Druids and under the wreck of Rome,<br>Rudely but surely they bedded the plinth of the days to come.<br>Behind the feet of the Legions and before the Norseman's ire<br>Rudely but greatly begat they the framing of State and Shire.<br>Rudely but deeply they laboured, and their labour stands till now,<br>If we trace on our ancient headlands the twist of their eight--ox<br>plough...<br>There came a king from Hamlun, by Bosenham he came,<br>He filled Use with slaughter, and Lewes he gave to flame.<br>He smote while they sat in the Witan--sudden he smote and sore,<br>That his fleet was gathered at Selsea ere they mustered at Cymen's<br>Ore.<br>Blithe went the Saxons to battle, by down and wood and mere,<br>But thrice the acorns ripened ere the western mark was clear.<br>Thrice was the beechmast gathered, and the Beltane fires burned<br>Thrice and, the beeves were salted thrice ere the host returned.<br>They drove that king from Hamtun, by Bosenhame o'erthrown,<br>Our of Rugnor to Wilton they made his land their own.<br>Camps they builded at Gilling, at Basing and Alresford,<br>But wrath abode in the Saxons from cottar to overlord.<br>Wrath at the weary war-game, at the foe that snapped and ran,<br>Wolf-wise feigning and flying, and wolf-wise snatching his man.<br>Wrath for their spears unready, their levies new to the blade--<br>Shame for the helpless sieges and the scornful ambuscade.<br>At hearth and tavern and market, wherever the tale was told,<br>Shame and wrath had the Saxons because of their boasts of old.<br>And some would drink and deny it, and some would pray and<br>atone;<br>But the most part, after their anger, avouched that the sin was<br>their own.<br>Wherefore, girding together, up to the Witan they came,<br>And as they had shouldered their bucklers so did they shoulder<br>their blame;<br>(For that was the wont of the Saxons, the ancient poets sing),<br>And first they spoke in the Witan and then they spoke to the<br>King:<br>"Edward King of the Saxons, thou knowest from sire to son,<br>"One is the King and his People--in gain and ungain one.<br>"Count we the gain together. With doubtings and spread dismays<br>"We have broken a foolish people--but after many days.<br>"Count we the loss together. Warlocks hampered our arms.<br>"We were tricked as by magic, we were turned as by charms.<br>"We went down to the battle and the road was plain to keep,<br>"But our angry eyes ever holden, and we struck as they strike<br>in sleep--<br>"Men new shaken from slumber, sweating with eyes a-stare<br>"Little blows uncertain, dealt on the useless air.<br>"Also a vision betrayed us and a lying tale made bold,<br>"That we looked to hold what we had not and to have what we<br>did not hold:<br>That a shield should give us shelter--that a sword should give us<br>power--<br>A shield snatched up at a venture and a hilt scarce handled an<br>hour:<br>"That being rich in the open, we should be strong in the close--<br>"And the Gods would sell us a cunning for the day that we met<br>our foes.<br>"This was the work of wizards, but not with our foe they bide,<br>"In our own camp we took them, and their names are Sloth and<br>Pride.<br>"Our pride was before the battle, our sloth ere we lifted spear:<br>"But hid in the heart of the people, as the fever hides in the mere:<br>"Waiting only the war-game, the heat of the strife to rise<br>"As the ague fumes round Oxeney when the rotting reed-bed<br>dries.<br>"But now we are purged of that fever--cleansed by the letting <br>of blood,<br>"Something leaner of body--something keener of mood.<br>"And the men new--freed from the levies return to the fields again,<br>"Matching a hundred battles, cottar and lord and thane;<br>"And they talk loud in the temples where the ancient war-<br>gods are;<br>"They thumb and mock and belittle the holy harness of war.<br>"They jest at the sacred chariots, the robes and the gilded staff.<br>"These things fill them with laughter, they lean on their spears<br>and laugh.<br>"The men grown old in the war-game, hither and thither they<br>range--<br>"And scorn and laughter together are sire and dam of change;<br>"And change may be good or evil--but we know not what it will <br>bring;<br>"Therefore our King must teach us. That is thy task, O King!"</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=Rudyard+Kipling">Rudyard Kipling</a><div class=q> <img src="https://www.citatepedia.ro/g/32share.png" style="float:left" alt="Share"> <script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=511013" data-title="The King's Task de Rudyard Kipling" data-description="After the sack of the City when Rome was sunk to a name, In the years that the lights were darkened, or ever St. Wilfrid came, Low on the borders of Britain (the ancient poets sing) Between the Cliff and the Forest there ruled a Saxon King. Stubbo..."></div> </div> </div>
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