The collected poems of James Elroy Flecker/Envoy

Envoy

The young men leap, and toss their golden hair,

Run round the land, or sail across the seas:

But one was stricken with a sore disease,

The lean and swarthy poet of despair.

Know me, the slave of fear and death and shame,

A sad Comedian, a most tragic Fool,

Shallow, imperfect, fashioned without rule,

The doubtful shadow of a demon flame.