That heresies should strike (if truth be scanned
Presumptuously) their roots both wide and deep,
Is natural as dreams to feverish sleep.
Lo! Discord at the altar dares to stand
Uplifting toward high Heaven her fiery brand,
A cherished Priestess of the new-baptized!
But chastisement shall follow peace despised.
The Pictish cloud darkens the enervate land
By Rome abandoned; vain are suppliant cries,
And prayers that would undo her forced farewell;
For she returns not. Awed by her own knell,
She casts the Britons upon strange Allies
Soon to become more dreaded enemies
Than heartless misery called them to repel.
Read all of William Wordsworth's poems · About William Wordsworth
More by William Wordsworth
- Ecclesiastical Sonnets - Part I. - V - Uncertainty
- Ecclesiastical Sonnets - Part I. - VI - Persecution
- Ecclesiastical Sonnets - Part I. - VII - Recovery
- Ecclesiastical Sonnets - Part I. - VIII - Temptations From Roman Refinements
- Ecclesiastical Sonnets - Part I. - X - Struggle Of The Britons Against The Barbarians
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