Poems Written in Close Confinement in The Tower and Newgate Under a Charge of High Treason. By John Thelwall |
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| XII. | SONNET XII. THE CRISIS.
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 | Poems Written in Close Confinement in The Tower and Newgate |  |
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SONNET XII. THE CRISIS.
“I will not, like a careless poet, spoil
“The last act of my play, till now applauded,
“By giving the world just cause to say I fear'd
“Death more than the loss of honor.”
Beaumont and Fletcher.
“The last act of my play, till now applauded,
“By giving the world just cause to say I fear'd
“Death more than the loss of honor.”
Beaumont and Fletcher.
IT comes—the awful hour!—Compatriots dear,
Who oft, confiding in my honest zeal,
And keen attachment to the public weal,
Bent to my artless theme the partial ear;
Now search my breast with scrutiny severe:
That breast which frequent in the swelling pride
Of youthful ardor, the stern threats defied
Of distant danger: mark, if now base fear
Palsy its boasted virtue—or if now
(Forgetful of the truths so oft upheld)
Abject beneath the imperious foot I bow
Of terror-vested Power—suppliant!—depress'd!—
Or one emotion feel, but what the breast
Of Hampden or of Sidney might have swell'd.
Newgate, Nov. 26.
| Poems Written in Close Confinement in The Tower and Newgate | |