| William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Georgian Verse. 1909. | | | | An Ode, in Imitation of Alcaeus | | By Sir William Jones (1746–1794) |
| | | WHAT constitutes a State? | |
| Not high-raised battlement or laboured mound, | |
| Thick wall or moated gate, | |
| Not cities proud with spires and turrets crowned; | |
| Not bays and broad-armed ports, | 5 |
| Where, laughing at the storm, rich navies ride; | |
| Not starred and spangled courts, | |
| Where low-browed baseness wafts perfume to pride. | |
| No:—men, high-minded men, | |
| With powers as far above dull brutes endued | 10 |
| In forest, brake, or den, | |
| As beasts excel cold rocks and brambles rude; | |
| Men, who their duties know, | |
| But know their rights, and, knowing, dare maintain, | |
| Prevent the long-aimed blow, | 15 |
| And crush the tyrant while they rend the chain: | |
| These constitute a State, | |
| And sovereign Law, that State’s collected will, | |
| O’er thrones and globes elate, | |
| Sits Empress, crowning good, repressing ill. | 20 |
| Smit by her sacred frown, | |
| The fiend, Dissension, like a vapour sinks, | |
| And e’en the all-dazzling crown | |
| Hides her faint rays, and at her bidding shrinks. | |
| Such was this heaven-loved isle, | 25 |
| Than Lesbos fairer and the Cretan shore! | |
| No more shall Freedom smile? | |
| Shall Britons languish, and be men no more? | |
| Since all must life resign, | |
| Those sweet rewards, which decorate the brave, | 30 |
| ’Tis folly to decline, | |
| And steal inglorious to the silent grave. | | | | |
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