“Fit Retribution, By The Moral Code”

Fit retribution, by the moral code Determined, lies beyond the State’s embrace, Yet, as she may, for each peculiar case She plants well-measured terrors in the road Of wrongful acts. Downward it is and broad, And, the main fear once doomed to banishment, Far oftener then, bad ushering worse event, Blood would be spilt that in his dark abode Crime might lie better hid. And, should the change Take from the horror due to a foul deed, Pursuit and evidence so far must fail, And, guilt escaping, passion then might plead In angry spirits for her old free range, And the “wild justice of revenge” prevail.

“In the eighth sonnet the doctrine, which would strive to measure out the punishments awarded by the law in proportion to the degrees of moral turpitude, is disavowed.” (Sir Henry Taylor.)--ED.

See Bacon’s Essay Of Revenge, beginning, “Revenge is a sort of wild justice.”--ED.