Elegiac Sonnets.
17
SONNET LXXVI.
TO A YOUNG MAN ENTERING THE WORLD.
GO now, ingenuous Youth!—The trying hour
Is come: The World demands that thou shouldst go
To active life: There titles, wealth, and power
May all be purchas'd—Yet I joy to know
Thou wilt not pay their price. The base controul
Of petty despots in their pedant reign
Already hast thou felt;—and high disdain
Of Tyrants is imprinted on thy soul—
Not, where mistaken Glory, in the field
Rears her red banner, be thou ever found:
But, against proud Oppression raise the shield
Of Patriot daring—So shalt thou renown'd
For the best virtues live; or that denied
May'st die, as Hampden or as Sydney died!
