Composed while the author was engaged in
writing a tract occasioned by
the Convention of Cintra, 1808

Not ’mid the World’s vain objects that enslave
The free-born Soul – that World whose vaunted skill
In selfish interest perverts the will,
Whose factions lead astray the wise and brave –
Not there, but in dark wood and rocky cave,
And hollow vale which foaming torrents fill
With omnipresent murmur as they rave
Down their steep beds, that never shall be still:
Here mighty Nature! in this school sublime
I weigh the hopes and fears of suffering Spain;
For her consult the auguries of time,
And through the human heart explore my way;
And look and listen – gathering, whence I may,
Triumph, and thoughts no bondage can restrain.

Verfaßt, als der Autor an einer Abhandlung
schrieb, zu der die Veinbarung von Cintra
Anlaß gegeben hatte

Nicht dort, wo korrumpiert Geschäftigkeit
und Klüngel freien Geist und wo versklavt
die Macht der Dinge uns und Lügen straft,
daß Weisheit sich entzieht Parteienstreit, –
nicht dort, nein in der Berge Einsamkeit,
wo Sturz- und Wildbach tosend Bahn sich schafft,
wo klein der Mensch erscheint ob solcher Kraft,
Natur erzieht uns durch Erhabenheit:
Hier Spaniens Leiden, Furcht und Hoffnung stell
mir vor und die Augurn der Zeit befrag,
erkund der Menschen Herz wie Bach und Fjäll,
und schau mich um, woher denn kommen mag
Triumph, Genugtuung und wo Gedanken,
die keine Fessel halten kann in Schranken.

c. 1808/1809; p. 1815. Fenwick Note (1843): 'It would not be easy to
conceive with what a depth of feeling I entered into the struggle
carried on by the Spaniards for their deliverance from the usurped
power ot fhe French. Many times have I gone from Allan Bank,
in Grasmere Vale, where we were then residing, to the top of the
Raise-Gap, as it is called, so late as two o'clock in the morning, to
meet the carrier bringing the newspaper from Keswick . Imperfect
traces of the state of mind in which I then was may be found in my
tract on the Convention of Cintra, as well as in these Sonnets.'

Zur Convention of Cintra und Wordworths Traktat siehe
Die "Tiroler Sonette" von William Wordsworth