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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

Poet Analysis

First Line: DEAR TO THE LOVES, AND TO THE GRACES VOWED
Last Line: STILLED BY THE ENSANGUINED BLOCK OF FOTHERINGAY!
Subject(s): CUMBRIA, ENGLAND; DERWENT (RIVER) GREAT BRITAIN; MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS (1542-1587); MARY STUART;

(LANDING AT THE MOUTH OF THE DERWENT, WORKINGTON)

DEAR to the Loves, and to the Graces vowed,
The Queen drew back the wimple that she wore;
And to the throng, that on the Cumbrian shore
Her landing hailed, how touchingly she bowed!
And like a Star (that, from a heavy cloud
Of pine-tree foliage poised in air, forth darts,
When a soft summer gale at evening parts
The gloom that did its loveliness enshroud)
She smiled; but Time, the old Saturnian seer,
Sighed on the wing as her foot pressed the strand,
With step prelusive to a long array
Of woes and degradations hand in hand --
Weeping captivity, and shuddering fear
Stilled by the ensanguined block of Fotheringay!



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