English poem
“Said Secrecy To Cowardice And Fraud”
Composed, probably, in 1838.--Published 1838
Said Secrecy to Cowardice and Fraud, Falsehood and Treachery, in close council met, Deep under ground, in Pluto’s cabinet, “The frost of England’s pride will soon be thawed; Hooded the open brow that overawed Our schemes; the faith and honour, never yet By us with hope encountered, be upset;-- For once I burst my bands, and cry, applaud!” Then whispered she, “The Bill is carrying out!” They heard, and, starting up, the Brood of Night Clapped hands, and shook with glee their matted locks; All Powers and Places that abhor the light Joined in the transport, echoed back their shout, Hurrah for ----, hugging his Ballot-box!
This was first published in a note to the sonnet entitled Protest against the Ballot, in the volume of 1838. It was never republished by Wordsworth.
See the note to the previous sonnet. George Grote was the person satirised. “Since that time,” adds Mr. Reed, in a note to his American edition, “Mr. Grote’s political notoriety, as an advocate of the ballot, has been merged in the high reputation he has acquired as probably the most eminent modern historian of ancient Greece”--ED.
More by William Wordsworth
- “Our Bodily Life, Some Plead, That Life The Shrine”
- “Peaceful Our Valley, Fair And Green”
- “Proud Were Ye, Mountains, When, In Times Of Old”
- “Said Red-Ribboned Evans”
- “See The Condemned Alone Within His Cell”
- “Shall He Who Gives His Days To Low Pursuits”
- “Six Months To Six Years Added He Remained”
- “So Fair, So Sweet, Withal So Sensitive”