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Home  »  The Complete Poetical Works by William Wordsworth  »  ON A CELEBRATED EVENT IN ANCIENT HISTORY

ON A CELEBRATED EVENT IN ANCIENT HISTORY


A ROMAN Master stands on Grecian ground, And to the people at the Isthmian Games Assembled, He, by a herald’s voice, proclaims THE LIBERTY OF GREECE:–the words rebound Until all voices in one voice are drowned; Glad acclamation by which air was rent! And birds, high-flying in the element, Dropped to the earth, astonished at the sound! Yet were the thoughtful grieved; and still that voice Haunts, with sad echoes, musing Fancy’s ear: 10 Ah! that a ‘Conqueror’s’ words should be so dear: Ah! that a ‘boon’ could shed such rapturous joys! A gift of that which is not to be given By all the blended powers of Earth and Heaven. 1810.