Poems (Hooper)/The King's Ride
THE KING'S RIDE.
Above the city of Berlin Shines soft the summer day,And near the royal palace shout The schoolboys at their play.
Sudden the mighty palace gates Unclasp their portals wide,And forth into the sunshine see A single horseman ride.
A bent old man in plain attire; No glitt'ring courtiers wait,No arméd guard attends the steps Of Frederick the Great!
The boys have spied him, and with shouts The summer breezes ring.The merry urchins haste to greet Their well-belovéd king.
Impeding e'en his horse's tread, Presses the joyous train;And Prussia's despot frowns his best, And shakes his stick in vain.
The frowning look, the angry tone, Are feigned, full well they know.They do not fear his stick—that hand Ne'er struck a coward blow.
"Be off to school, you boys!" he cries. "Ho! ho!" the laughers say,"A pretty king you not to know We've holiday to-day!"
And so upon that summer day, Those children at his side,The symbol of his nation's love, Did royal Frederick ride.
O Kings! your thrones are tott'ring now! Dark frowns the brow of Fate!When did you ride as rode that day King Frederick the Great?