Spiritless outcast!”
(Kicks the Knife-grinder, overturns his wheel,
and exit in a transport of Republican
enthusiasm and universal philanthropy.)
George Canning (The Anti-Jacobin).
Written in Sapphics and said to be a parody of a poem of Southey’s, which was afterwards suppressed.
I loved him, but my reason bade prefer
Duty to love, reject the tempter’s bribe
Of rose and lily when each path diverged,
And either I must pace to life’s far end
As love should lead me, or, as duty urged,