“The Roman Consul Doomed His Sons To Die”

The Roman Consul doomed his sons to die Who had betrayed their country. The stern word Afforded (may it through all time afford) A theme for praise and admiration high. Upon the surface of humanity He rested not; its depths his mind explored; He felt; but his parental bosom’s lord Was Duty,--Duty calmed his agony. And some, we know, when they by wilful act A single human life have wrongly taken, Pass sentence on themselves, confess the fact, And, to atone for it, with soul unshaken Kneel at the feet of Justice, and, for faith Broken with all mankind, solicit death.

“In the third and fourth sonnets the reader is prepared to regard as low and effeminate the views which would estimate life and death as the most important of all sublunary conditions.” (Sir Henry Taylor.)--ED.

Lucius Junius Brutus, who condemned his sons to die for the part they took in the conspiracy to restore the Tarquins. (See Livy, book ii.)--ED.