[Editor: This poem by William Blocksidge (also known as William Baylebridge) was published in Songs o’ the South (1908).]
Anger
Anger, thou fearful furnace of the mind,
Whose fiery bowels feed on Reason’s fame,
Red seed of License, bearing baleful Shame,
Of that foul brood which Bloodshed hides behind,
Away! thou palsied fiend! No pleasure find
To wrap me in thine all-devouring flame!
Lend, O ye Powers, a loving heart to tame
Her cruel scourge, who now in chains would bind
My very being — lend some potent charm
To pluck me from her fatal vassalage!
To dally with a jade whose heritage
Is strife and grief, could work me naught but harm!
Fools fill with choler where the wise keep calm;
And I would strive to be accounted sage.
Source:
William Blocksidge, Songs o’ the South, London: Watts, 1908, p. 45
Editor’s notes:
baleful = expressing destructive or harmful intentions; displaying a menacing or threatening visage; manifesting an intent of destruction, harm, menace; having a dangerous, destructive, or harmful effect; (archaic) miserable, unhappy, wretched
choler = anger; irascibility (easily made angry, a disposition towards anger); irritability, peevishness; wrath
jade = a worthless woman (derived from “jade” as applied to a worn-out or worthless horse or an ill-tempered horse); a disreputable or flirtatious woman; an ill-tempered woman
naught = nothing; zero; failure, without result; lost, ruined (older meanings are: ruined, useless, worthless; morally bad, wicked)
palsied = affected with palsy: paralysis; or a muscular condition characterized by uncontrollable tremors of the arms, hands, legs, or even the entire body
sage = wise, shrewd; having or showing acute mental discernment, sound judgment, good perception (can also refer to a wise person)
thine = (archaic) your; yours
thou = (archaic) you
vassalage = the condition or state of being a vassal: a person or state which is in a subordinate position to another person or state; (in a feudal society) a holder of land who owes allegiance, entailing certain obligations, to a lord
ye = (archaic) you (however, still in use in some places, e.g. in Cornwall, Ireland, Newfoundland, and Northern England; it can used as either the singular or plural form of “you”, although the plural form is apparently the more common usage)
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