 | Three Hundred Sonnets |  |
276
THE PAPAL AGGRESSION.
Enough of gossip and grandiloquence,—What must be done? Has England thus been stirr'd
To her deep heart,—and lashed her sober sense
Into high wrath at Rome's rare insolence,
Only to bluster with a bullying word?
The Lion roars, but when he roars he springs!
He is no cur to bark and slink away:
The times are past, when ministers or kings
Could make our nation, puppet-like, obey,
Pulling one string to rouse it, one to lay;—
We claim that you, the Rulers of the realm,
For, and with us, to whom you first appeal'd,
The sword of government shall firmly wield
With stern defeat this Pope to overwhelm.
| Three Hundred Sonnets | |