[B] In The Friend, January 4.—Ed.
1810
As indicated in the editorial note to the poems belonging to the year 1809, those of 1810 were mainly sonnets, suggested by the events occurring on the Continent of Europe, and the patriotic efforts of the Spaniards to resist Napoleon. I have assigned the two referring to Flamininus, entitled [On a Celebrated Event in Ancient History], to the same year. They were first published in 1815, and seem to have been due to the same impulse which led Wordsworth to write the "Sonnets dedicated to Liberty."—Ed.
"AH! WHERE IS PALAFOX? NOR TONGUE NOR PEN"
Composed 1810.—Published 1815
All the sonnets of 1810 were "dedicated to Liberty." In every edition this poem had for its title the date 1810.—Ed.
Ah! where is Palafox? Nor tongue nor pen
Reports of him, his dwelling or his grave!
Does yet the unheard-of vessel ride the wave?
Or is she swallowed up, remote from ken
Of pitying human-nature? Once again 5
Methinks that we shall hail thee, Champion brave,
Redeemed to baffle that imperial Slave,
And through all Europe cheer desponding men
With new-born hope. Unbounded is the might
Of martyrdom, and fortitude, and right. 10
Hark, how thy Country triumphs!—Smilingly
The Eternal looks upon her sword that gleams,
Like his own lightning, over mountains high,
On rampart, and the banks of all her streams.