Here pause: the poet claims at least this praise...

Here pause: the poet claims at least this praise,

That virtuous Liberty hath been the scope

Of his pure song, which did not shrink from hope

In the worst moment of these evil days;

From hope, the paramount duty that Heaven lays,

For its own honour, on man's suffering heart.

Never may from our souls one truth depart —

That an accursedthing it is to gaze

On prosperous tyrants with a dazzled eye;

Nor — touched with due abhorrence of their guilt

For whose dire ends tears flow, and blood is spilt,

And justice labours in extremity —

Forget thy weakness, upon which is built,

O wretched man, the throne of tyranny!