Hath stained the robes of civil power with blood, Unjustly shed--albeit to prevent Manifold tumults and incessant strife, That seemed to hang upon a single life To whom the calm of general content, The stedfastness of public good, Was tiresome as the weight That presses down the minds of mariners, When not a billow stirs On the wide surface of the ocean flood. {Untractable disturber of the State, } {Strong is he--and concessions have proved vain,} {And pardon {only makes } him more elate, } { {doth but make} } {And bolder to transgress again. } {Untractable disturber of the State, } {Of popularity the giddy thrall, } {Ever aspiring to the topmost height,} {His ears he shuts against the call } {Of reason--therefore let him fall. } Infirm decision, slowly won From Dion's mind--to authorize a deed Which when the word was uttered--with the speed Of lightning hurrying through the heav'ns--is done. {But} since that fatal hour--the chief, the sage, {For} That hung upon a single life {Presumptuous,} {Bold, } fickle, envious, turbulent, {Ambitious, } Ever aspiring to the topmost height; To whom the calm of general content, Diffused when order reigned for public good, Was tiresome ... Repeated pardons make him more elate, And bolder to offend again. He hath provoked his fate; Deliberative sadness ratifies The offender's doom, and solemn be his obsequies! _Yes, let him fall_, decision slowly won From Dion's mind, to authorize a deed Which when the word was uttered--with the speed Of lightning hurrying through the heav'ns--is done. But since that fated word the {princely } sage, {chief--the} Prime boast and envy of a glorious age, Droops, under burthen of repentant sorrow, Depress'd to-day, and unrelieved to-morrow. He hath provoked his fate: Ever aspiring to the topmost height, He shuts his ear against the call Of Reason, therefore let him fall. MS. Some years ago I was inclined to assign this poem to the year 1814, because Wordsworth himself gave it that date in one of the notes which he dictated to Miss Fenwick in 1843. I now assign it to the year 1816. Wordsworth gave it that date in the year 1837, and if written in 1814, I think it would have been included in the edition of 1815. _Dion_, the _Ode to Lycoris_, and the translation of part of Virgil's _Æneid_, belong to a time when Wordsworth had reverted to the subjects of ancient classical literature while preparing his eldest son for the University.