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My sorrow; for I brought with me the A conflict of sensations without name,

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209

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Oh! much have they to account for, wa could tear,

By violence, at one decisive rent, From the best youth in England the dear pride,

Their joy, in England; this, too, at a time

In which worst losses easily might wear
The best of names, when patriotic love
Did of itself in modesty give way,
Like the Precursor when the Deity
Is come Whose harbinger he was; a
In which apostasy from ancient faith
Seemed but conversion to a higher creed;
Withal a season dangerous and wild,
A time when sage Experience would have
snatched

Flowers out of any hedge-row to compe

On some grey rock-its birthplace-so A chaplet in contempt of his grey

had I

Wantoned, fast rooted on the ancient tower

Of my beloved country, wishing not 280 A happier fortune than to wither there: Now was I from that pleasant station torn And tossed about in whirlwind. I rejoiced,

Yea, afterwards-truth most painful to record!

locks

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330

Domestic carnage now filled the whole

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Head after head, and never heads enough For those that bade them fall. They found their joy,

They made it proudly, eager as a child,

In France, the men, who, for their (If like desires of innocent little ones 365 desperate ends,

Had plucked up mercy by the roots, were

glad

Of this new enemy.

before

May with such heinous appetites be com

pared),

Pleased in some open field to exercise

Tyrants, strong A toy that mimics with revolving wings

The motion of a wind-mill; though the air

In wicked pleas, were strong as demons Do of itself blow fresh, and make the

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370 Spin in his eyesight, that contents him not,

But, with the plaything at arm's length, he sets

And thus, on every side beset with foes,
The goaded land waxed mad; the crimes
of few
336
Spread into madness of the many; blasts
From hell came sanctified like airs from His
heaven.

front against the blast, and runs amain,

The sternness of the just, the faith of That it may whirl the faster. those

Who doubted not that Providence had times

340 Of vengeful retribution, theirs who throned

The human Understanding paramount And made of that their God, the hopes of men

Who were content to barter short-lived
pangs

For a paradise of ages, the blind rage 345
Of insolent tempers, the light vanity
Of intermeddlers, steady purposes
Of the suspicious, slips of the indiscreet,
And all the accidents of life were pressed
Into one service, busy with one work. 350
The Senate stood aghast, her prudence
quenched,

Amid the depth Of those enormities, even thinking minds Forgot, at seasons, whence they had their being;

376

Forgot that such a sound was ever heard
As Liberty upon earth: yet all beneath
Her innocent authority was wrought,
Nor could have been, without her blessed

name.

380

The illustrious wife of Roland, in the
hour

Of her composure, felt that agony,
And gave it vent in her last words. O
Friend!

It was a lamentable time for man,
Whether a hope had e'er been his or not;
A woeful time for them whose hopes
survived
386

Her wisdom stifled, and her justice scared, The shock; most woeful for those few Her frenzy only active to extol

Past outrages, and shape the way for new,
Which no one dared to oppose or mitigate.

who still

Were flattered, and had trust in human

kind:

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Through months, through years, long after Guarded within the bosom of Thy will.

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Therefore to serve was high beatitude; Tumult was therefore gladness, and the

fear

Ennobling, venerable; sleep secure, 435 And waking thoughts more rich that happiest dreams.

But as the ancient Prophets, borne

aloft

In vision, yet constrained by natural laws With them to take a troubled human heart,

Wanted not consolations, nor a creed 4 Of reconcilement, then when they de nounced,

On towns and cities, wallowing in the abyss

Of their offences, punishment to come:
Or saw, like other men, with bodily eyes.
Before them, in some desolated place, 45
The wrath consummate and the threa
fulfilled;

So, with devout humility be it said,
So, did a portion of that spirit fall
On me uplifted from the vantage-ground
Of pity and sorrow to a state of being
That through the time's exceeding fier

ness saw

Glimpses of retribution, terrible,
And in the order of sublime behests:
But, even if that were not, amid the awe
Of unintelligible chastisement,
Not only acquiescences of faith

Survived, but daring sympathies with Under worst trials, was I driven to think Of the glad times when first I traversed

power,

Motions not treacherous or profane, else why

Within the folds of no ungentle breast Their dread vibration to this hour prolonged?

460

Wild blasts of music thus could find their way

Into the midst of turbulent events;

So that worst tempests might be listened

to.

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A youthful pilgrim; above all reviewed
That eventide, when under windows bright
With happy faces and with garlands hung,
And through a rainbow-arch that spanned
the street,
495

Triumphal pomp for liberty confirmed,
I paced, a dear companion at my side,
The town of Arras, whence with promise
high

Then was the truth received into my Issued, on delegation to sustain

heart,

That, under heaviest sorrow earth can bring,

465

If from the affliction somewhere do not

grow

Humanity and right, that Robespierre, 500
He who thereafter, and in how short time!
Wielded the sceptre of the Atheist crew.
When the calamity spread far and wide-
And this same city, that did then appear

Honour which could not else have been, To outrun the rest in exultation, groaned

a faith,

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Under the vengeance of her cruel son, 506 As Lear reproached the winds-I could almost

Have quarrelled with that blameless
spectacle

For lingering yet an image in my mind
To mock me under such a strange re-

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That neither passed away nor changed, Of a dilapidated structure, once
A Romish chapel, where the vested priest

I gazed Enrapt; but brightest things are wont to Said matins at the hour that suited those draw

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Who crossed the sands with ebb of

morning tide.

Not far from that still ruin all the
plain

Lay spotted with a variegated crowd
Of vehicles and travellers, horse and foot.
Wading beneath the conduct of their
guide

In loose procession through the shallow

stream

And on the stone were graven by his Of inland waters; the great sea mear

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With sound of voice and countenance of After strict question, left within 5

mind

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the Man, Came back upon me, so that some few That he and his supporters all were!

tears

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fallen.

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