The Wiccamical Chaplet a selection of original poetry; comprising smaller poems, serious and comic; classical trifles; sonnets; inscriptions and epitaphs; songs and ballads; mock-heroics, epigrams, fragments, &c. &c. Edited by George Huddesford |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 | The Wiccamical Chaplet |  |
80
SONNET X. TO AN OAK Blown down by the Wind.
Thou who, unmov'd, hast heard the whirlwind chideFull many a winter round thy craggy bed;
And, like an earth-born giant, hast outspread
Thy hundred arms and heaven's own bolts defied,
Now liest along thy native mountain's side
Uptorn;—yet deem not that I come to shed
The idle drops of pity o'er thy head,
Or basely to insult thy blasted pride:—
No—still 'tis thine, tho' fall'n, imperial Oak!
To teach this lesson to the wise and brave,
That 'tis much better, overthrown and broke
In Freedom's cause, to sink into the grave
Than, in submission to a tyrant's yoke,
Like the vile reed, to bow and be a slave.
| The Wiccamical Chaplet | |