![Despond Who Will, 'I' Heard A Voice Exclaim, By: William Wordsworth](https://i0.wp.com/poetrycatalog.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Despond-Who-Will-I-Heard-A-Voice-Exclaim-By-William-Wordsworth.png?resize=750%2C420&ssl=1)
Despond who will, ‘I’ heard a voice exclaim,
“Though fierce the assault, and shattered the defense,
It cannot be that Britain’s social frame,
The glorious work of time and providence,
Before a flying season’s rash pretense,
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.”