Song to John Wilkes

Great is the shame and ill repute
of John Wilkes there in England;
he hath lost all the friends he had,
and his foes have grown in number;
though he did flee far afield,
he was caught and is in duress;
they have lodged him behind locks,
and the key is in the jailer's keeping.

He is now in narrow quarters,
a crushed man, melancholy, tearful;
his foot is held fast in irons
racking him in his affliction;
'twere easier for him to have fever
than the torment in his body;
and there he is, a year and longer,
each day begging for forgiveness.

But didst thou receive forgiveness
for all the statements thou hast made,
'twere a cause of assurance to all rogues
that they themselves could copy thee;
a man without weight, rule or reason,
'tis in evil thou art trusting;
thou hast renounced decree of clergy,
and vowed thou wouldst not hear a sermon.

Thou hast shown contempt for the Church,
for the faith and the commandments;
thou hast ascribed lies to the Trinity
and to the precepts they delivered;
according to the gospel that I hearken,
'tis now probably the case
that thou hast foregone the privilege
of the redemption which our Saviour won.

Thou hast renounced thy baptismal vows,
'tis most disgraceful of thee to abjure them;
the court where right prevailed is closed to thee,
thou hast chosen sin instead;
thou hast adopted the rule and course
that Judas, thine own brother, followed;
great is the scandal to thy country
that thou, thou brute, didst grow therein.

Still, though every grove were surveyed,
never was wood free of rotten timber;
and 'tis within the whole world's knowledge
that all the wood is not of equal straightness;
thou art the tree thaThath been blasted,
thaThath no bark or twigs or branches,
thaThath no sap or substance or foliage,
no rind, not as much as the roots.

Thou art the bird of decimated brood,
'twas in a robbed nest thou wast left;
thou art the raven that went from the ark
as messenger, and failed to do his duty;
thou art the wolf thaThath no teeth —
pity the man who wished to be as thou:
thou art the chieftain of the villains,
and every man of worth doth scorn thee.

I am not surprised thou art a boor
and impure in thy nature,
since thou hast cleaved to the habits
of the pests from whom thou camest;
thou art the brat that the bully
got by the strumpet of the streets;
'twas vice that reared thee in childhood,
and as a scoundrel thou wast nurtured.

Humbly didst thou start at first
in penury and poverty;
'twas devilry induced thee to be a gallant,
indeed thou shouldst have been in service;
pity thou didst not abide by thy heritage,
as a brewer boiling cauldrons,
supplying liquor to all tipplers,
as they kept on draining bottles.

Thou hast been a cadger in thy time,
and all that while a burden to friends,
passing a night in every house in the country
that was disposed to give thee a meal;
thou didst use the portion of the poor
to discharge all thy liabilities;
whaThath put thee now in funds
but plunder and embezzlement?

Thou didst expect to have thy prayer granted,
for leave to sit in Britain's parliament;
'twere a shame that thou shouldst be invited,
when thy brain lacketh sense and equity.
He is a purblind man who hath gone astray
and heedeth not his own welfare,
with his reckless, wanton utterance,
and repeated, woeful lapses.

He is a man without land or patrimony,
without property, title or money,
without morals, faith or credit,
and there is none that believeth his statements;
he is a drunken, bankrupt, untruthful man,
a ruffian and a brutish animal,
while mental anguish, horribly devouring,
often stingeth his deceitful heart.

Thou art noted in the role of Conan,
raising contention among people;
none was heard of heretofore on earth
to match thee in devilry,
except the serpent in the Garden of Eden
that duped Eve at the foot of the tree,
and advised her to pluck the fruit,
the act that left mankind exposed.

Thy first essay in wickedness
was telling lies about King George;
none will believe such a yarn from thee
and none will hearken to thy talk;
thy malice hath little effect
on the heir to the crown and titles,
when there are so many who gladly
pay homage to his Highness.

Though thou detestest Lord Loudon,
I knew the stem from which he sprang;
a placid, cheery nobleman he is,
of prudent heart and lofty mind;
a general at the head of the army,
who achieved renown in battles,
it doth not harm him that a stray dog
should now be barking at him.

Thou hast spoken much nonsense
behind the back of the noble Earl of Bute,
an honoured champion verily,
stoutly defending the kingdom;
he is highly respected and beloved
at the court of the King and Queen,
despite the Whelk and such rascals
as would deign to be his allies.

Thou hast talked unsparingly of Scotland,
and thou hadst better have kept silent;
wert thou to come near the Roughbounds,
woe to one in thy position:
thou wouldst be in prison all thy days,
in spite of those who might support thee;
and, in requital for the mischief thou hast wrought,
the gallows for death-blow would be assigned to thee.

No wonder thou art sad: thou hast incurred
the ire of every man in this generation;
'tis this, indeed, thou hast merited,
a perverse creature thou from adolescence;
much aversion doth beset thee;
the Whigs' curse and the Pope's are on thee,
the curse of the whole world is on thee,
and my curse is on thee with the rest.

I.

That man is great, and he alone,
Who serves a greatness not his own,
For neither praise nor pelf:
Content to know, and be unknown:
Whole in himself.

II.

Strong is that man, he only strong,
To whose well-order'd will belong,
For service and delight,
All powers that, in the face of Wrong,
Establish Right.

III.

And free he is, and only he,
Who, from his tyrant passions free,
By Fortune undismay'd,
Hath power upon himself, to be
By himself obey'd.

IV.

If such a man there be, where'er
Beneath the sun and moon he fare,
He cannot fare amiss.
Great Nature hath him in her care —
Her cause is his:

V.

Who holds by everlasting law
Which neither chance nor change can flaw:
Whose steadfast course is one
With whatsoever forces draw
The ages on:

VI.

Who hath not bow'd his honest head
To base Occasion: nor, in dread
Of Duty, shunn'd her eye:
Nor truckled to loud times: nor wed
His heart to a lie:

VII.

Nor fear'd to follow, in the offence
Of false opinion, his own sense
Of justice unsubdued:
Nor shrunk from any consequence
Of doing good.

VIII.

He looks his Angel in the face
Without a blush: nor heeds disgrace,
Whom nought disgraceful done
Disgraces. Who knows nothing base
Fears nothing known.

IX.

Not morsell'd out from day to day
In feverish wishes, nor the prey
Of hours that have no plan,
His life is whole, to give away
To God and man.

X.

For tho' he live aloof from ken,
The world's unwitness'd denizen,
The love within him stirs
Abroad, and with the hearts of men
His own confers:

XI.

The judge upon the justice-seat:
The brown-back'd beggar in the street:
The spinner in the sun:
The reapers reaping in the wheat:
The wan-cheek'd nun.

XII.

In cloister cold: the prisoner lean
In lightless den: the robed Queen:
Even the youth who waits,
Hiding the knife, to glide unseen
Between the gates: —

XIII.

He nothing human alien deems
Unto himself, nor disesteems
Man's meanest claim upon him:
And, where he walks, the mere sunbeams
Drop blessings on him:

XIV.

Because they know him Nature's friend,
On whom she doth delight to tend
With loving-kindness ever,
Helping and heartening to the end
His high endeavour.

XV.

Therefore, tho' mortal made, he can
Work miracles. The uncommon man
Leaves nothing commonplace.
He is the marvellous. To span
The abyss of space,

XVI.

The orb of time, is his by faith,
And his, whilst breathing human breath,
To taste, before he dies,
The deep eventual calm of death,
Life's latest prize.

XVII.

If such a man there be, where'er
Beneath the sun and moon he fare,
He doth not fare alone.
He goeth girt with cohorts, powers,
The monarch of his manful hours,
Whose mind's his throne:

XVIII.

He owes no homage to the sun:
There's nothing he need seek or shun:
All things are his by right:
He is his own posterity:
His future in himself doth lie:
His soul's his light:

XIX.

Lord of a lofty life is he,
Loftily living, tho' he be
Of lowly birth: tho' poor,
He lacks not wealth: nor high degree
In state obscure.

XX.

The merely great are, all in all,
No more than what the merely small
Esteem them. Man's opinion
Neither conferr'd, nor can recall,
This man's dominion.
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