THE GHOST OF ROGER CASEMENT
 
 O WHAT has made that sudden noise?
 What on the threshold stands?
 It never crossed the sea because
 John Bull and the sea are friends;
 But this is not the old sea
 Nor this the old seashore.
 What gave that roar of mockery,
 That roar in the sea's roar?
 The ghost of Roger Casement
 Is beating on the door.
 
 John Bull has stood for Parliament,
 A dog must have his day,
 The country thinks no end of him,
 For he knows how to say,
 At a beanfeast or a banquet,
 That all must hang their trust
 Upon the British Empire,
 Upon the Church of Christ.
 The ghost of Roger Casement
 Is beating on the door.
 
 John Bull has gone to India
 And all must pay him heed,
 For histories are there to prove
 That none of another breed
 Has had a like inheritance,
 Or sucked such milk as he,
 And there's no luck about a house
 If it lack honesty.
 The ghost of Roger Casement
 Is beating on the door.
 
 I poked about a village church
 And found his family tomb
 And copied out what I could read
 In that religious gloom;
 Found many a famous man there;
 But fame and virtue rot.
 Draw round, beloved and bitter men,
 Draw round and raise a shout;
 The ghost of Roger Casement
 Is beating on the door.