Friends and Foes

They fed me with poisonous food of praise,
They sung me to sleep with slumberous lays,
That I was beautiful, wise and strong.
The King was King, and could do no wrong.
When morning came, I awoke to find,
That I was ignorant, poor and blind.

So I sought me out a parcel of foes;
They stripped me of all my daintiest clothes,
They sent me naked into the night,
Over stocks and stones I took my flight.
When morning dawned I awoke to see
That a babe had been, that a man might be.