Glad acclamation by which air was 1 rent ! And birds, high flying in the element, By all the blended powers of Earth and Heaven. This "Roman Master " " on Grecian ground" was T. Quintius Flamininus, one of the ablest and noblest of the Roman generals (230-174 B.C.). He was successful against Philip of Macedon, overran Thessaly in 198, and conquered the Macedonian army in 197, defeating Philip at Cynoscephalæ. He concluded a peace with the vanquished. "In the spring of 196, the Roman commission arrived in Greece to arrange, conjointly with Flamininus, the affairs of the country: they also brought with them the terms on which a definite peace was to be concluded with Philip. The Ætolians exerted themselves to excite suspicions among the Greeks as to the sincerity of the Romans in their dealings with them. Flamininus, however, insisted upon immediate compliance with the terms of the peace. In this summer, the Isthmian games were celebrated at Corinth, and thousands from all parts of Greece flocked thither. Flamininus, accompanied by the ten commissioners, entered the assembly, and, at his command, a herald, in name of the Roman Senate, proclaimed the freedom and independence of Greece. The joy and enthusiasm at this unexpected declara tion was beyond all description: the throngs of people that crowded around Flamininus to catch a sight of their liberator or touch his garment were so enormous, that even his life was endangered." (Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography: Art. Flamininus, No. 4.)-ED. UPON THE SAME EVENT Composed (probably) 1810. - Published 1815 WHEN, far and wide, swift as the beams of morn And of that joy which shook the Isthmian Field, The rough Ætolians smiled with bitter scorn. "'Tis known," cried they, "that he, who would adorn His envied temples with the Isthmian crown, 6 Must either win, through effort of his own, The prize, or be content to see it worn By more deserving brows. - Yet so ye prop, As if the wreath of liberty thereon Would fix itself as smoothly as a cloud, Which, at Jove's will, descends on Pelion's top." The Ætolians were the only Greeks that entertained suspicion of the Roman designs from the first. When Flamininus was wintering in Phocis in 196, and an insurrection broke out at Opus, some of the citizens had called in the aid of the Ætolians against the Macedonian garrison; but the gates of the city were not opened to admit the Ætolian volunteers till Flamininus arrived. Then in the battle at the heights of Cynoscephalæ, where the Macedonian army was routed, the Ætolian contingent, which had helped Flamininus, claimed the sole credit of the victory; and wished no truce made with Philip, as they were bent on the destruction of the Macedonian power. The Ætolians aimed subsequently at exciting suspicion against the sincerity of Flamininus. In the second sonnet, Wordsworth's sympathy seems to have been with the Ætolians, as much as it was with the Swiss and the Tyrolese in their attitude to Buonaparte. But Flamininus was not a Napoleon.-ED. THE OAK OF GUERNICA Composed 1810. - Published 1815 The ancient oak of Guernica, says Laborde in his account of Biscay, is a most venerable natural monument. Ferdinand and Isabella, in the year 1476, after hearing mass in the church of Santa Maria de la Antigua, repaired to this tree, under which they swore to the Biscayans to maintain their fueros (privileges). What other interest belongs to it in the minds of this people will appear from the following SUPPOSED ADDRESS TO THE SAME. 1810 OAK of Guernica! Tree of holier power If never more within their shady round 5 10 Prophetic power was believed to reside within the grove which surrounded the temple of Jupiter near Dodona, in Epirus, and oracles were given forth from the boughs of the sacred oak. -ED. INDIGNATION OF A HIGH-MINDED Composed 1810. - Published 1815 We can endure that He should waste our lands, 5 Of benefits, and of a future day 10 When our enlightened minds shall bless his sway; Compare the two sonnets On a Celebrated Event in Ancient History (pp. 242-44). The following note to the last line of this sonnet occurs in Professor Reed's American edition of the Poems: "The student of English poetry will call to mind Cowley's impassioned expression of the indignation of a Briton under the depression of disasters somewhat similar. Let rather Roman come again, We grieved, we sighed, we wept, we never blushed before." See Cowley's Discourse on the Government of Oliver Crom well.-ED. "AVAUNT ALL SPECIOUS PLIANCY OF MIND" Composed 1810. - Published 1815 AVAUNT all specious pliancy of mind In men of low degree, all smooth pretence! And self-respecting slowness, disinclined 5 Affections, which, if put to proof, are kind; Were England's native growth; and, throughout Spain, (Thanks to high God) forests of such remain : 1 II Then for that Country let our hopes be bold; Her arts, her strength, her iron, and her gold. "O'ERWEENING STATESMEN HAVE FULL LONG RELIED " Composed 1810. - Published 1815 In all the editions this poem has for its title the date 1810.-ED. O'ERWEENING Statesmen have full long relied In the thronged city, from the walks of gain, As being all unworthy to detain A Soul by contemplation sanctified. There are who cannot languish in this strife, 1 1837. 5 Forests of such do at this day remain ; 1815. |