Lost leader
William Wordsworth in old age Young Robert Browning
The Lost Leader - a poem by Robert Browning, published in 1845, expressing indignation at William Wordsworth's acceptance of the title of Poet-Laureate and lifetime salary from the king two years earlier. Young Browning believed that the poet had sold, leaving behind his prestige and financial benefits his current ideals, as well as people who recognized him as an authority. The poem is written using a date meter. The scheme is four feet.
Just for a handful of silver he left us, Just for a riband to stick in his coat - Found the one gift of which fortune bereft us, Lost all the others she lets us devote; They, with the gold to give, doled him out silver, So much was theirs who so little allowed: How all our copper had gone for his service! Rags - were they purple, his heart had been proud!
Poem translated into Polish by Czesław Miłosz.
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