43. provoke. Call forth.
41-44. What is the use of such trophies? they cannot bring the dead back to life, and neither honour nor flattery can appeal to those who are dead.
46. pregnant with celestial fire. Filled with the poetic spirit.
48. the living lyre. The musical instrument seeming almost as if it had life.
51. Their poetic fervour (rage) was repressed by poverty.
52. the genial current of their soul. The flow of their finer feelings and emotions.
58. The little tyrant of his fields. The landowner who attempted to tyrannize over him.
60. guiltless of his country’s blood. The general opinion held of Cromwell in the eighteenth century was that he was a cruel tyrant who was “guilty of his country’s blood.” The village Cromwell is guiltless because he has had no opportunity to act the part of a real Cromwell.
61. senates. Assemblies.
64. In the gratitude of the nation they saw the results of their own efforts.