DID I not know a great man's power and might In spite of innocence can smother right, Colour his villainies to get esteem, And make the honest man the villain seem? I know it, and the world doth know'tis true, Yet I protest if such a man I knew, That might my country prejudice or thee Were he the greatest or the proudest he, That breathes this day; if so it might be found That any good to either might redound, I unappalled, dare in such a case Rip up his foulest crimes before his face, Though for my labour I were sure to drop Into the mouth of ruin without hope. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...GOOD-BYE DOROTHY GAYLE: ST. CLOUD, MINNESOTA by KAREN SWENSON OLD IRONSIDES by OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES PEARLS OF THE FAITH: 14. AL-MUZAWWIR by EDWIN ARNOLD ON MR. FREDERICK PORTER'S ROOM OF PICTURES, 1930 by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN THE AUTHOR'S EARNEST CRY AND PRAYER by ROBERT BURNS TRANSFORMATION by RICHARD EUGENE BURTON TOWARDS DEMOCRACY: PART 4. THE COAST OF LIGURIA by EDWARD CARPENTER |