Sonnet LXXVI. to a Young Man Entering the World
GO now, ingenious youth!—The trying hour
Is come: The world demands that thou shouldst go
To active life: There titles, wealth, and power,
May all be purchased—Yet I joy to know
Thou wilt not pay their price. The base control
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!
Other works by Charlotte Smith...
Sonnet LXX: on Being Cautioned Against Walking on an Headland Overlooking the Sea, Because It Was Frequented by a Lunatic
Is there a solitary wretch who hie… To the tall cliff, with starting p… And, measuring, views with wild an… Its distance from the waves that c… Who, as the sea-born gale with fre…
