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Ecclesiastical Sonnets - Part I. - XXXIX - Papal Dominion

By William Wordsworth

Topics: classic

Unless to Peter's Chair the viewless wind Must come and ask permission when to blow, What further empire would it have? for now A ghostly Domination, unconfined As that by dreaming Bards to Love assigned, Sits there in sober truth, to raise the low, Perplex the wise, the strong to overthrow; Through earth and heaven to bind and to unbind! Resist the thunder quails thee! crouch rebuff Shall be thy recompense! from land to land The ancient thrones of Christendom are stuff For occupation of a magic wand, And 'tis the Pope that wields it: whether rough Or smooth his front, our world is in his hand!

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"Unless to Peter's Chair the viewless wind..."

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Author:William Wordsworth

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"Unless to Peter's Chair the viewless wind..." by William Wordsworth

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William Wordsworth

About William Wordsworth

William Wordsworth (1770–1850) was an English Romantic poet who launched the movement with Samuel Taylor Coleridge in "Lyrical Ballads" (1798). His poems—including "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" and "Tintern Abbey"—championed nature, memory, and the language of common speech.

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