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W. B. Yeats

W. B. Yeats

The Saint and the Hunchback

Hunchback.   STAND up and lift your hand and bless    
A man that finds great bitterness    
In thinking of his lost renown.    
A Roman Caesar is held down    
Under this hump.          
 
Saint.   God tries each man    
According to a different plan.    
I shall not cease to bless because    
I lay about me with the taws    
That night and morning I may thrash    
Greek Alexander from my flesh,    
Augustus Caesar, and after these    
That great rogue Alcibiades.    
 
Hunchback.   To all that in your flesh have stood    
And blessed, I give my gratitude,    
Honoured by all in their degrees,    
But most to Alcibiades.

The Wild Swans at Coole. 1919.

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