No More Learning

Three hundred thousand volunteers were enlisted in Great
Britain by the 10th of August 1803;

"all the male population of the kingdom from seventeen years of age to
fifty-five were divided into classes to be successively armed and
exercised" (Dyer).

The story of the failure of Napoleon's scheme is too well known to be
repeated in this note. Wordsworth seems to have written his sonnet in
anticipation of what he believed would have been the inevitable issue of
events, had the French army actually landed on British soil. --Ed.





* * * * *





LINES ON THE EXPECTED INVASION

1803


Composed 1803. --Published 1842


Included among the "Poems dedicated to National Independence and
Liberty. "--Ed.




Come ye--who, if (which Heaven avert! ) the Land
Were with herself at strife, would take your stand,
Like gallant Falkland, by the Monarch's side,
And, like Montrose, make Loyalty your pride--
Come ye--who, not less zealous, might display 5
Banners at enmity with regal sway,
And, like the Pyms and Miltons of that day,
Think that a State would live in sounder health
If Kingship bowed its head to Commonwealth--
Ye too--whom no discreditable fear 10
Would keep, perhaps with many a fruitless tear,
Uncertain what to choose and how to steer--
And ye--who might mistake for sober sense
And wise reserve the plea of indolence--
Come ye--whate'er your creed--O waken all, 15
Whate'er your temper, at your Country's call;
Resolving (this a free-born Nation can)
To have one Soul, and perish to a man,
Or save this honoured Land from every Lord
But British reason and the British sword. 20




* * * * *



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