History & Politics
Upon the Same Event
From Poetical Works, ed. Knight (1896), vol. IV
When, far and wide, swift as the beams of morn
The tidings passed of servitude repealed,
And of that joy which shook the Isthmian Field,
The rough Aetolians smiled with bitter scorn.
"'Tis known," cried they, "that he, who would adorn
His envied temples with the Isthmian crown,
Must either win, through effort of his own,
The prize, or be content to see it worn
By more deserving brows.--Yet so ye prop,
Sons of the brave who fought at Marathon,
Your feeble spirits! Greece her head hath bowed,
As if the wreath of liberty thereon
Would fix itself as smoothly as a cloud,
Which, at Jove's will, descends on Pelion's top."
Codex Note
Composed (probably) 1810; published 1815.
Cite this poem
MLA
Wordsworth, William. “Upon the Same Event.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/wordsworth/256/.
Chicago
Wordsworth, William. “Upon the Same Event.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/wordsworth/256/.
Read this poem with the Codex →