UPON THE LATE GENERAL FAST[763]
MARCH, 1832
Composed 1832.—Published 1832
One of the "Sonnets dedicated to Liberty and Order."—Ed.
Reluctant call it was; the rite delayed;
And in the Senate some there were who doffed
The last of their humanity, and scoffed
At providential judgments,[764] undismayed
By their own daring. But the People prayed 5
As with one voice; their flinty heart grew soft
With penitential sorrow, and aloft
Their spirit mounted, crying, "God us aid!"
Oh that with aspirations more intense,
Chastised by self-abasement more profound, 10
This People, once[765] so happy, so renowned
For liberty, would seek from God defence
Against far heavier ill, the pestilence[766]
Of revolution, impiously unbound!
FOOTNOTES:
[763] 1837.
The title in 1832 was Sonnet on the Late General
Fast, March 21, 1832.
[764] 1840.