Classic Poem

Traveler, learn of a fantastic calamity and stand amazed!
The King could not save a son of the commons
That he had raised on high.
Sovereignty, the right of kings, is wrongfully seized
By the governed, the greater is now the lesser.
Innocent, and thus calmly, he relinquishes it.
And after sustained Scottish pressures,
Illegally exerted,
Even the sanctity of the law was destroyed.
By arbitrary and changeable decree,
A life (never to be rekindled)
Was taken away forever.
A great enterprise
Unfortunately yielded to hate.
Though the offence was not a capital one,
The State wished his head, white with age, cut off,
And for four years, with ill motives, pressed an investigation;
The fury of the State, the spite of the people,
The caprice of the Commons (supported by the sword)
At last came into the open.
To such an extent is all the world a tennis court,
That a Bishop who sanctions
Becomes a Bishop subject to punishment.
With him, the grandeur of the Kingdom,
the defence of the Cavaliers,
The tradition of the Church,
The freedom of the subjects,
And the safety of the British sphere
Are, for a season, buried together.
Depart, Traveler, and mourn; so that you might despise death
By living well.]