"Hate and mistrust are the children of blindness." -- William Watson
Sir William Watson (2 August 1858 — 13 August 1935), was an English poet, popular in his time for the political content of his verse. He was born in Burley, in West Yorkshire.
He was very much on the traditionalist wing of English poetry. He was a prolific poet of the 1890s, and a contributor to The Yellow Book, without 'decadent' associations. He was also a defender of Alfred, Lord Tennyson, as he dropped out of fashion. On Tennyson's death, Watson was a strong candidate for Poet Laureate but his earlier opposition to the Boer War had made him politically unsuitable and he was passed over for Alfred Austin.
"Empires dissolve and peoples disappear, song passes not away.""Personally, I do not believe that we shall have greater armaments in the future than we have had in the past. On the contrary, I believe there will be a gradual diminution in this respect.""The thirst to know and understand, a large and liberal discontent.""We hold our hate too choice a thing, for light and careless lavishing.""Yes, threadbare seem his songs, to lettered ken - they were worn threadbare next the hearts of men."