In Other Words/T.R. to W.H.T.

by Franklin P. Adams

Layout 2

 

 

T. R. to W. H. T.

“I was a king in Babylon
 And you were a christian slave.”
Henley.

Or ever the knightly fight was on,
 The skirmish of smear and smudge,
I was a King in Washington
 And you were a circuit judge.

I saw, I took, I made you great,
 Friendly I called you Will,
And back in Nineteen Hundred and Eight,
 Out in Chicago, Ill.,
I made the convention nominate,
 And now—the terrible chill.

For many a sun has set and shone
 On the path we used to trudge
When I was a King in Washington
 And you were a circuit judge.

I passed the lie and you passed it back;
 You said I was all untruth;
I said that honesty was your lack;
 You said I’d nor reck nor ruth.
You called me megalomaniac—
 I called you a Serpent’s Tooth.

And now the convention days are gone
 And the past is full of grudge;
Yet—I was a King in Washington,
 And you were a circuit judge!