Despond who will''" I heard a voice exclaim, '''Though fierce the assault, and shattered the defence, It cannot be that Britain's social frame, The glorious work of time and providence, Before a flying season's rash pretence, Should fall; that She, whose virtue put to shame, When Europe prostrate lay, the Conqueror's aim, Should perish, self-subverted. Black and dense The cloud is; but brings that a day of doom To Liberty? Her sun is up the while, That orb whose beams round Saxon Alfred shone: Then laugh, ye innocent Vales! ye Streams, sweep on, Nor let one billow of our heaven-blest Isle Toss in the fanning wind a humbler plume.''' | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SONG OF AUTUMN by PAUL VERLAINE VANQUISHED; ON THE DEATH OF GENERAL GRANT by FRANCIS FISHER BROWNE COUNTING THE BEATS by ROBERT RANKE GRAVES THE SENSITIVE PLANT by PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY UNDERWOODS: BOOK 1: 6. A VISIT FROM THE SEA by ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON ON BEING ASKED FOR A WAR POEM by WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS |