The Defender

He shall be nameless.

Who can give to him

The strict and tender appellation due

To one whose birth provides an ample text,

Where precedent is garment for the new.

He shall go uncompanioned.

Where is friend

To risk the narrow hazards of this place,

Repudiate the standard color chart

Whether of reputation or of race.

He shall be undeceived,

And being so,

And drenched in understanding, know the lie,

Be unconfounded by infinitives,

To see, to breathe, to feel, to live, to die.

He shall be most bereaved.

Of usual

And dear prerogative he shall have none,

The magnitude of triviality,

The ardent apathy of sun to sun.