[300] Mr. Ellis Yarnall wrote to me, April 27, 1885: “The three last lines of the Sonnet _To the Pennsylvanians_, in regard to which you inquire, I think refer to what at the time Wordsworth wrote was known as the _repudiation_ by Pennsylvania of her State debt. The language, however, is too strong, inasmuch as there was _no_ repudiation. For a year or two the _interest_ on the debt was unpaid, then payment was resumed. Members of Wordsworth’s family, or his near friends, held, I believe, some of the Pennsylvania bonds. They held also, as appears from the _Memoirs_, Mississippi bonds, and these _were_ repudiated, or at least five million dollars of a certain class of Mississippi bonds. No such wrong-doing is chargeable to Pennsylvania. I remember the delight with which Professor Reed showed me the note on the fly-leaf at the end of the fifth volume of the edition of 1850--words written at his request, and the last sentences ever composed by the Poet for the press.”--ED. “YOUNG ENGLAND--WHAT IS THEN BECOME OF OLD” Composed 1845.--Published 1845 One of the “Sonnets dedicated to Liberty and Order.”--ED. Young England--what is then become of Old Of dear Old England? Think they she is dead, Dead to the very name? Presumption fed On empty air! That name will keep its hold In the true filial bosom’s inmost fold 5 For ever.--The Spirit of Alfred, at the head Of all who for her rights watch’d, toil’d and bled, Knows that this prophecy is not too bold. What--how! shall she submit in will and deed To Beardless Boys--an imitative race, 10 The _servum pecus_ of a Gallic breed? Dear Mother! if thou _must_ thy steps retrace, Go where at least meek Innocency dwells; Let Babes and Sucklings be thy oracles. 1846 The poems written in 1846 were six sonnets, the lines beginning, “I know an aged man constrained to dwell,” an “Evening Voluntary,” and other two short pieces.--ED. SONNET[301] Composed 1846.--Published 1850 This was placed among the “Epitaphs and Elegiac Poems.”--ED. Why should we weep or mourn, Angelic boy, For such thou wert ere from our sight removed, Holy, and ever dutiful--beloved From day to day with never-ceasing joy, And hopes as dear as could the heart employ 5 In aught to earth pertaining? Death has proved His might, nor less his mercy, as behoved-- Death conscious that he only could destroy The bodily frame. That beauty is laid low To moulder in a far-off field of Rome; 10 But Heaven is now, blest Child, thy Spirit’s home: When such divine communion, which we know, Is felt, thy Roman-burial place will be Surely a sweet remembrancer of Thee.