Here once again
The golden era
Of the Emperor, bold, loud,
And triumphantly heedless
In every Ivory Tower
A statue for Nescience
To every beacon of Vision
A shroud of dreadful darkness
Let Silence ring
From the classroom to the newsroom
Let retributive venom unsettle the wind
From the marketplace to the lawyers den
Oderint dum metuant*
For this is another season
Of fear and silence; of anxious tongues
Hanging limp from the trembling mouth
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Shibboleth hunters at the national gate
Immigrant-catchers are on the prowl
Those cat-eating, dog-chewing strangers
Are cargoed back to their native holes
Promise made, promise kept
Nothing makes one country greater
Than a brutal diminution of other countries
The era of liberal kindness is long done and gone