'In whose sight all things joy, _with ravishment_, Attracted by thy beauty still to gaze'...." ED. VARIANTS: [1] 1837. ... framing beds of ... 1807. ... for ... 1815. A PROPHECY. FEBRUARY, 1807 Composed 1807.--Published 1807 Included among the "Sonnets dedicated to Liberty," re-named in 1845, "Poems dedicated to National Independence and Liberty."--ED. High deeds, O Germans, are to come from you! Thus in your books the record shall be found, "A watchword was pronounced, a potent sound-- ARMINIUS![A]--all the people quaked like dew Stirred by the breeze; they rose, a Nation, true, 5 True to herself[1]--the mighty Germany, She of the Danube and the Northern Sea, She rose, and off at once the yoke she threw. All power was given her in the dreadful trance; Those new-born Kings she withered like a flame."[B] 10 --Woe to them all! but heaviest woe and shame To that Bavarian who could[2] first advance His banner in accursed league with France,[C] First open traitor to the German name![3] VARIANTS: [1] 1820. ... itself ... 1807. [2] 1837. ... did ... 1807. [3] 1837. ... to her sacred name! 1807. ... to a ... 1820. FOOTNOTES: [A] Arminius, or Hermann, the liberator of Germany from the Roman power, A.D. 9-17. Tacitus says of him, "He was without doubt the deliverer of Germany; and, unlike other kings and generals, he attacked the Roman people, not at the commencement, but in the fullness of their power: in battles he was not always successful, but he was invincible in war. He still lives in the songs of the barbarians."--ED. [B] The "new-born Kings" were the lesser German potentates, united in the Confederation of the Rhine. By a treaty signed at Paris (July 12th, 1806), by Talleyrand, and the ministers of twelve sovereign houses of the Empire, these princes declared themselves perpetually severed from Germany, and united together as the Confederate States of the Rhine, of which the Emperor of the French was declared Protector.--ED. [C] On December 11, 1806, Napoleon concluded a treaty with Frederick Augustus, the Elector of Saxony--who had been secretly on the side of France for some time--to whom he gave additional territories, and the title of King, admitting him into "the Confederation of the Rhine." He had fallen, as one of the Prussian statesmen put it, into "that lowest of degradations, to steal at another man's bidding."--ED. THOUGHT OF A BRITON ON THE SUBJUGATION OF SWITZERLAND Composed 1807.--Published 1807