Sonnets :: :: University of Virginia Library

The times are full of change; and restless men,
Who live by agitation, would devour
The widow's mite—her all, the orphan's dower,—
If upright minds do not, by speech and pen,
Their fury check. Ye guardians of the state,
Who would corruption from the earth uproot,
And every branch that bears not healthful fruit,
Abet them not! but rather emulate
A nobler course; and, as with lusty stroke
Ye fell the cumbrous trunks that widely spread
Their deadly shade, be mindful where ye tread,
And hear the prayer that would your hearts invoke;
And while ye clear the land with wrathful power,
Spare, but for courtesy, the modest flower.