The Power of Armies Is a Visible Thing
The Power of Armies Is a Visible Thing - context Summary
National Resistance Sonnet
This sonnet treats national resistance as a moral force distinct from formal armies. Wordsworth contrasts the visible, bounded power of military forces with an indomitable popular spirit that cannot be tracked or contained. Written in the context of opposition to Napoleonic ambition, the poem asserts that freedom and vindictive justice arise organically from a people, spreading spontaneously and sustaining morale across the land.
Read Complete AnalysesThe power of Armies is a visible thing, Formal and circumscribed in time and space; But who the limits of that power shall trace Which a brave People into light can bring Or hide, at will,--for freedom combating By just revenge inflamed? No foot may chase, No eye can follow, to a fatal place That power, that spirit, whether on the wing Like the strong wind, or sleeping like the wind Within its awful caves.--From year to year Springs this indigenous produce far and near; No craft this subtle element can bind, Rising like water from the soil, to find In every nook a lip that it may cheer.
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