Versos English Charlotte Smith Sonnet LXXVI (GO now, ingenuous Youth!—The trying hour…)

English poem

Sonnet LXXVI (GO now, ingenuous Youth!—The trying hour…)

by (1749–1806)

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GO now, ingenuous Youth!—The trying hour Is come: The World demands that thou shouldst go To active life: There titles, wealth, and power May all be purchas'd—Yet I joy to know Thou wilt not pay their price. The base controul Of petty despots in their pedant reign Already hast thou felt;—and high disdain Of Tyrants is imprinted on thy soul— Not, where mistaken Glory, in the field Rears her red banner, be thou ever found: But, against proud Oppression raise the shield Of Patriot daring—So shalt thou renown'd For the best virtues live; or that denied May'st die, as Hampden or as Sydney died!