"WHEN HAUGHTY EXPECTATIONS PROSTRATE LIE"
Composed 1819.—Published 1820
One of the "Miscellaneous Sonnets."—Ed.
When haughty expectations prostrate lie,[DN]
And grandeur crouches like a guilty thing,
Oft shall the lowly weak, till nature bring
Mature release, in fair society
Survive, and Fortune's utmost anger try;
Like these frail snow-drops that together cling,
And nod their helmets, smitten by the wing
Of many a furious whirl-blast sweeping by.
Observe the faithful flowers![DO] if small to great
May lead the thoughts, thus struggling used to stand
The Emathian phalanx,[DP] nobly obstinate;
And so the bright immortal Theban band,[DQ]
Whom onset, fiercely urged at Jove's command,
Might overwhelm, but could not separate!
FOOTNOTES:
[DN] In the edition of 1820 this sonnet was entitled,
On seeing a tuft of Snow-drops in a Storm;
and, in the edition of 1827, the title was,
Composed a few days after the foregoing;
the "foregoing" sonnet being that addressed To a Snow-drop.—Ed.
[DO] Compare in The Primrose of the Rock—
The flowers, still faithful to the stems,
Their fellowship renew;
The stems are faithful to the root,
That worketh out of view;
And to the rock the root adheres
In every fibre true.
[DP] Macedonian; the district of Emathia being the original seat of the Macedonian monarchy.—Ed.
[DQ] An allusion to the so-called Sacred Band, whose successes under Pelopidas had so large a share in sustaining the Theban ascendency after the Battle of Leuctra (B.C. 371-366).—Ed.