Is there a power that can sustain and cheer The captive chieftain, by a tyrant's doom, Forced to descend into his destined tomb--[1] A dungeon dark! where he must waste the year, And lie cut off from all his heart holds dear; 5 What time his injured country is a stage Whereon deliberate Valour and the rage Of righteous Vengeance side by side appear, Filling from morn to night the heroic scene With deeds of hope and everlasting praise:-- 10 Say can he think of this with mind serene And silent fetters? Yes, if visions bright Shine on his soul, reflected from the days When he himself was tried in open light. This may refer to Palafox, alluded to in the sonnet (p. 222) beginning, "And is it among rude untutored Dales," and in the one next in order in the series (p. 223); although, from the latter sonnet, it would seem that Wordsworth did not know that Palafox was, in 1809, a prisoner at Vincennes. In his edition of the poems published in 1837, Professor Henry Reed of Philadelphia said, "He must be dull of heart who, in perusing this series of Poems 'dedicated to Liberty,' does not feel his affection for his own country--wherever it may be--and his love of freedom, under whatever form of government his lot may have been cast--at once invigorated and chastened into a purer and more thoughtful emotion."--ED. VARIANTS: [1] 1837. Forced to descend alive into his tomb, 1815. The text of 1815 was re-adopted in 1838; the text of 1840 returned to that of 1837. EPITAPHS TRANSLATED FROM CHIABRERA [Those from Chiabrera were chiefly translated when Mr. Coleridge was writing his _Friend_, in which periodical my "Essay on Epitaphs," written about that time, was first published. For further notice of Chiabrera, in connection with his Epitaphs, see _Musings near Aquapendente_.--I. F.] It is better to print all the Epitaphs from Chiabrera together, than to spread them out over the years when they were written or published. Some of them were certainly written in 1809, or at least before 1810; others at a later date. But it is impossible to say in what year those published after 1810 were composed. They are all to be found in the class of "Epitaphs and Elegiac Pieces."--ED. I "WEEP NOT, BELOVÈD FRIENDS! NOR LET THE AIR" Published 1837