Sonnet

by Edna St. Vincent Millay

My earnestness, which might at first offend,
Forgive me, for the duty it implies:
I am the convoy to the cloudy end
Of a most bright and regal enterprise;
Which under angry constellations, ill-
Mounted and under-rationed and unspurred,
Set forth to find if any country still
Might do beisance to an honest word.

Duped and delivered up to rascals; bound
And bleeding, and his mouth stuffed; on his knees;
Robbed and imprisoned; and adjuged unsound;
I have beheld my master, if you please.
Forgive my earestness, who at his side
Received his swift instructions, till he died.


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