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William Wordsworth

Helen Darbishire and Ernest De Selincourt (eds), The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth, Vol. 3: Miscellaneous Sonnets; Memorials of Various Tours; Poems to National Independence and Liberty; The Egyptian Maid; The River Duddon Series; The White Doe and Other Narrative Poems; Ecclesiastical Sonnets (Second Edition)

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XX

[Composed 1809.—Published 1815.]

  • Editor’s Note1Call not the royal Swede unfortunate,
  • 2Who never did to Fortune bend the knee;
  • 3Who slighted fear; rejected stedfastly
  • pg 1344Temptation; and whose kingly name and state
  • 5Have "perished by his choice, and not his fate!"
  • 6Hence lives He, to his inner self endeared;
  • 7And hence, wherever virtue is revered,
  • 8He sits a more exalted Potentate,
  • 9Throned in the hearts of men. Should Heaven ordain
  • 10That this great Servant of a righteous cause
  • 11Must still have sad or vexing thoughts to endure,
  • 12Yet may a sympathising spirit pause,
  • 13Admonished by these truths, and quench all pain
  • 14In thankful joy and gratulation pure.1

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Editor’s Note
p. 133. XX. 1. the royal Swede] Gustavus IV. (v. Part I, Sonnet VII, supra and note.)
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