"O'ERWEENING STATESMEN HAVE FULL LONG RELIED"
Composed 1810.—Published 1815
In all the editions this poem has for its title the date 1810.—Ed.
O'erweening Statesmen have full long relied
On fleets and armies, and external wealth:
But from within proceeds a Nation's health;
Which shall not fail, though poor men cleave with pride
To the paternal floor; or turn aside, 5
In the thronged city, from the walks of gain,
As being all unworthy to detain
A Soul by contemplation sanctified.
There are who cannot languish in this strife,
Spaniards of every rank, by whom the good 10
Of such high course was felt and understood;
Who to their Country's cause have bound a life
Erewhile, by solemn consecration, given
To labour, and to prayer, to nature, and to heaven.[A]
FOOTNOTES:
[A] See Laborde's Character of the Spanish People; from him the sentiment of these two last lines is taken.—W. W. 1815.
THE FRENCH AND THE SPANISH GUERILLAS
Composed 1810.—Published 1815