Richard Chenevix Trench

Sonnet (You say we love not freedom, honoured friend)

You say we love not freedom, honoured friend;
Yea, doubtless, we can lend to scheme like yours
Small love. Yet not for this--that it assures
Too much to man--this would not me offend:
But for I know that all such schemes will end
With leaving him too little,--will deprive
Of that free energy by which we live:
For of such plots the final act attend--
See them who loathed the very name of king,
Emulous in slavery, bow their souls before
The new-coined title of some meaner thing
Than ever crown of king or emperor wore;
For such in God’s and Nature’s righteousness,
The weakness which avenges all excess.