Was fondly grafted with a virtuous aim,
Renounced, abandoned by degenerate Men
For state-dishonour black as ever came
To upper air from Mammon’s loathsome den.[300]
[299] To William Penn, son of Admiral Sir W. Penn, a printer and Quaker, Charles II. granted lands in America, to which he gave the name of Pennsylvania.—Ed.
[300] Mr. Ellis Yarnall wrote to me, April 27, 1885: “The three last lines of the Sonnet To the Pennsylvanians, in regard to which you inquire, I think refer to what at the time Wordsworth wrote was known as the repudiation by Pennsylvania of her State debt. The language, however, is too strong, inasmuch as there was no repudiation. For a year or two the interest on the debt was unpaid, then payment was resumed. Members of Wordsworth’s family, or his near friends, held, I believe, some of the Pennsylvania bonds. They held also, as appears from the Memoirs, Mississippi bonds, and these were repudiated, or at least five million dollars of a certain class of Mississippi bonds. No such wrong-doing is chargeable to Pennsylvania. I remember the delight with which Professor Reed showed me the note on the fly-leaf at the end of the fifth volume of the edition of 1850—words written at his request, and the last sentences ever composed by the Poet for the press.”—Ed.
“YOUNG ENGLAND—WHAT IS THEN BECOME OF OLD”
Composed 1845.—Published 1845
One of the “Sonnets dedicated to Liberty and Order.”—Ed.
Young England—what is then become of Old