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ECCLESIASTICAL SONNETS: PART 1: 11. SAXON CONQUEST by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

Poet Analysis

First Line: NOR WANTS THE CAUSE THE PANIC-STRIKING AID
Last Line: OF LONG-DRAWN RAMPART, WITNESS WHAT THEY WERE.

NOR wants the cause the panic-striking aid
Of hallelujahs tost from hill to hill --
For instant victory. But Heaven's high will
Permits a second and a darker shade
Of Pagan night. Afflicted and dismayed,
The Relics of the sword flee to the mountains:
O wretched Land! whose tears have flowed like fountains;
Whose arts and honours in the dust are laid
By men yet scarcely conscious of a care
For other monuments than those of Earth;
Who, as the fields and woods have given them birth,
Will build their savage fortunes only there;
Content, if foss, and barrow, and the girth
Of long-drawn rampart, witness what they were.




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