Bend, ye Perverse! to judgments from on High,

Laws that lay under Heaven’s perpetual ban

All principles of action that transcend

The sacred limits of humanity.

[226] Wordsworth wrote this sonnet against Carlyle’s French Revolution in particular. Carlyle knew it, and this may in part—although only in part—account for Carlyle’s indifference to Wordsworth.—Ed.

CONTINUED

Published 1842

One of the “Sonnets dedicated to Liberty and Order.”—Ed.

Who ponders National events shall find