Portentous change when History can appear
As the cool Advocate of foul device;
Reckless audacity extol, and jeer
At consciences perplexed with scruples nice!
They who bewail not, must abhor, the sneer
Born of Conceit, Power’s blind Idolater;
Or haply sprung from vaunting Cowardice
Betrayed by mockery of holy fear.
Hath it not long been said the wrath of Man
Works not the righteousness of God? Oh bend,
Bend, ye Perverse! to judgments from on High,
Laws that lay under Heaven’s perpetual ban
All principles of action that transcend
The sacred limits of humanity.
Read all of William Wordsworth's poems · About William Wordsworth
More by William Wordsworth
- Miscellaneous Sonnets, 1842 - V - Continued
- Miscellaneous Sonnets, 1842 - VI - Concluded
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- Miscellaneous Sonnets, 1842 - VIII - Lo! Where She Stands Fixed In A Saint-Like Trance
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