RPO -- William Wordsworth : It is not to be Thought of

William Wordsworth (1770-1850)

It is not to be Thought of

1It is not to be thought of that the Flood

2Of British freedom, which, to the open sea

3Of the world's praise, from dark antiquity

4Hath flowed, "with pomp of waters, unwithstood,"

5Roused though it be full often to a mood

6Which spurns the check of salutary bands,

7That this most famous Stream in bogs and sands

8Should perish; and to evil and to good

9Be lost for ever. In our halls is hung

10Armoury of the invincible Knights of old:

11We must be free or die, who speak the tongue

12That Shakespeare spake; the faith and morals hold

13Which Milton held.--In every thing we are sprung

14Of Earth's first blood, have titles manifold.

Notes

4] "with pomp of waters, unwithstood": see Daniel, The Civile Wars, II, vii, 5.

5-6] These lines were first substituted in 1827 for the original version which read:

Roads by which all might come and go that would,
And bear out freights of worth to foreign lands.

It has been plausibly suggested that Wordsworth refers to the disturbances which led to the agitation for Catholic Emancipation and the Reform Bill, to both of which he was opposed.

Online text copyright © 2009, Ian Lancashire (the Department of English) and the University of Toronto.
Published by the Web Development Group, Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries.

Original text: William Wordsworth, Poetical Works (London: Longman, 1827). B-11 0716 Fisher Rare Book Library (Toronto) 1-5. Originally in Morning Post (April 16, 1803).
First publication date: 1803
RPO poem editor: J. R. MacGillivray
RP edition: 3RP 2.374.
Recent editing: 2:2002/3/15

Composition date: 1802 - 1804
Rhyme: abbaaccadedede

Other poems by William Wordsworth