To be the father of the fatherless, <br />To stretch the hand from the throne's height, and raise <br />His offspring, who expired in other days <br />To make thy sire's sway by a kingdom less,-- <br />This is to be a monarch, and repress <br />Envy into unutterable praise. <br />Dismiss thy guard, and trust thee to such traits, <br />For who would lift a hand, except to bless? <br />Were it not easy, sir, and is't not sweet <br />To make thyself beloved? and to be <br />Omnipotent by mercy's means? for thus <br />Thy sovereignty would grow but more complete: <br />A despot thou, and yet thy people free, <br />And by the heart, not hand, enslaving us.<br /><br />George Gordon Byron<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/sonnet-to-george-the-fourth-on-the-repeal-of-lord-edward-fitzgerald-s-forfeiture/
