Classic Poem

The king, with all the kingly train, had left his Pompadour behind,
And forth he rode in Senart's wood, the royal beasts of chase to find.
That day, by chance, the monarch mused; and turning suddenly away,
He struck alone into a path that far from crowds and courtiers lay.

He saw the pale green shadows play upon the brown untrodden earth;
He saw the birds around him flit, as if he were of peasant birth;
He saw the trees, that know no king but him who bears a woodland axe;
He thought not — but he looked about, like one who still in thinking lacks.

Then close to him a footstep fell, and glad of human sound was he;
For, truth to say, he found himself but melancholy companie.
But that which he would ne'er have guessed before him now most plainly came:
The man upon his weary back a coffin bore of rudest frame.

" Why, who art thou? " exclaimed the king; " and what is that I see thee bear? "
" I am a laborer in the wood, and 'tis a coffin for Pierre.
Close by the royal hunting-lodge you may have often seen him toil;
But he will never work again, and I for him must dig the soil. "

The laborer ne'er had seen the king, and this he thought was but a man;
Who made at first a moment's pause, and then anew his talk began:
" I think I do remember now — he had a dark and glancing eye;
And I have seen his sturdy arm with wondrous stroke the pickaxe ply.

" Pray tell me, friend, what accident can thus have killed our good Pierre? "
" O, nothing more than usual, sir: he died of living upon air.
'Twas hunger killed the poor good man, who long on empty hopes relied;
He could not pay gabelle and tax, and feed his children — so he died. "

The man stopped short; and then went on — " It is, you know, a common story:
Our children's food is eaten up by courtiers, mistresses, and glory. "
The king looked hard upon the man, and afterwards the coffin eyed;
Then spurred to ask, of Pompadour, how came it that the peasants died.