Sonnet: In Time of Revolt

The Thing must End.I am no boy! I AM
   No BOY!! being twenty-one. Uncle, you make
   A great mistake, a very great mistake,
In chiding me for letting slip a "Damn!"
What's more, you called me "Mother's one ewe-lamb,"
   Bade me "refrain from swearing--for her sake--
   Till I'm grown up" . . . --By God! I think you'd take
Too much upon you, Uncle William!

You say I am your brother's only son.
I know it. And, "What of it?" I reply.
My heart's resolved. Something must be done.
So shall I curb, so baffle, so suppress
This too avuncular officiousness,
Intolerable consanguinity.

January 1908.