“SAID SECRECY TO COWARDICE AND FRAUD”
Composed, probably, in 1838.—Published 1838[405]
Said Secrecy to Cowardice and Fraud,
Falsehood and Treachery, in close council met,
Deep under ground, in Pluto’s cabinet,
“The frost of England’s pride will soon be thawed;
Hooded the open brow that overawed 5
Our schemes; the faith and honour, never yet
By us with hope encountered, be upset;—
For once I burst my bands, and cry, applaud!”
Then whispered she, “The Bill is carrying out!”
They heard, and, starting up, the Brood of Night 10
Clapped hands, and shook with glee their matted locks;
All Powers and Places that abhor the light
Joined in the transport, echoed back their shout,
Hurrah for ——, hugging his Ballot-box![406]
[405] This was first published in a note to the sonnet entitled Protest against the Ballot, in the volume of 1838. It was never republished by Wordsworth.
[406] See the note to the previous sonnet. George Grote was the person satirised. “Since that time,” adds Mr. Reed, in a note to his American edition, “Mr. Grote’s political notoriety, as an advocate of the ballot, has been merged in the high reputation he has acquired as probably the most eminent modern historian of ancient Greece”—Ed.
A POET TO HIS GRANDCHILD
(SEQUEL TO THE FOREGOING)[407]
Published 1838
“Son of my buried Son, while thus thy hand
Is clasping mine, it saddens me to think
How Want may press thee down, and with thee sink
Thy Children left unfit, through vain demand
Of culture, even to feel or understand 5
My simplest Lay that to their memory
May cling;—hard fate! which haply need not be
Did Justice mould the Statutes of the Land.
A Book time-cherished and an honoured name
Are high rewards; but bound they Nature’s claim 10
Or Reason’s? No—hopes spun in timid line
From out the bosom of a modest home
Extend through unambitious years to come,
My careless Little-one, for thee and thine!”[408][409]
[407] “The foregoing” was the Sonnet named A Plea for Authors, May 1838.—Ed.
[408] 1836.
Son of my buried Son, whose tiny hand
Thus clings to mine, it {saddens} me to think
{troubles}
That thou pressed down by poverty mayst sink
Even till thy children shall in vain demand
{Culture and neither feel nor} understand
{Culture required to feel and}
{My simplest lay that to their memory}
{My least recondite lay, which memory}
{Perchance may cleave}; hard fate, which need not be
{May keep in trust }
Did justice mould the statutes of the land.
{A book time-cherished} and an honoured name
{A cherished volume }
Are high rewards, but bound not {Reason’s} claim.
{Nature’s}
No—hopes {in fond hereditary line }
{and wishes in a living line}
Spun from the bosom of a modest home
Extend thro’ unambitious years to come,
My careless Little-one, for thee and thine!
MS.
[409] The author of an animated article, printed in the Law Magazine, in favour of the principle of Serjeant Talfourd’s Copyright Bill, precedes me in the public expression of this feeling; which had been forced too often upon my own mind, by remembering how few descendants of men eminent in literature are even known to exist.—W.W. 1838.
This sonnet was not addressed to any grandson of the Poet’s.—Ed.