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Sonnets Upon The Punishment Of Death - In Series, 1839 VI - Ye Brood Of Conscience Spectres!

By William Wordsworth

Topics: classic

Ye brood of conscience Spectres! that frequent The bad Man's restless walk, and haunt his bed Fiends in your aspect, yet beneficent In act, as hovering Angels when they spread Their wings to guard the unconscious Innocent Slow be the Statutes of the land to share A laxity that could not but impair 'Your' power to punish crime, and so prevent. And ye, Beliefs! coiled serpent-like about The adage on all tongues, "Murder will out," How shall your ancient warnings work for good In the full might they hitherto have shown, If for deliberate shedder of man's blood Survive not Judgment that requires his own?

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"Ye brood of conscience Spectres! that frequent..."

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Author:William Wordsworth

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"Ye brood of conscience Spectres! that frequent..." 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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