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William Wordsworth (1770-1850)

October, 1803


              1These times strike monied worldlings with dismay:
              2Even rich men, brave by nature, taint the air
              3With words of apprehension and despair:
              4While tens of thousands, thinking on the affray,
              5Men unto whom sufficient for the day
              6And minds not stinted or untilled are given,
              7Sound, healthy, children of the God of heaven,
              8Are cheerful as the rising sun in May.
              9What do we gather hence but firmer faith
            10That every gift of noble origin
            11Is breathed upon by Hope's perpetual breath;
            12That virtue and the faculties within
            13Are vital,--and that riches are akin
            14To fear, to change, to cowardice, and death?

Notes

1] At this date an invasion of England by the French was expected. The poem was published in 1807.

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, Poems in Two Volumes (1807). The Manuscript of William Wordsworth's Poems, in Two Volumes (1807): A Facsimile (London: British Library, 1984). bib MASS (Massey College Library).
First publication date: 1807
RPO poem editor: W. J. Alexander, William Hall Clawson
RP edition: RP (1912), p. 112; RPO 1997.
Recent editing: 2:2002/3/20

Rhyme: abbaaccaefeffe

Other poems by William Wordsworth

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