Religion

The Saint and the Hunchback

by W. B. Yeats 1865–1939

From The Wild Swans at Coole (1919)

Religion

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.

MLA

Yeats, W. B. “The Saint and the Hunchback.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/yeats/210/.

Chicago

Yeats, W. B. “The Saint and the Hunchback.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/yeats/210/.

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