Sonnet To A Sonnet

By Thomas Hood

Rare composition of a poet-knight,
Most chivalrous amongst chivalric men,
Distinguished for a polished lance and pen
In tuneful contest and in tourney-fight;
Lustrous in scholarship, in honor bright,
Accomplished in all graces current then,
Humane as any in historic ken,
Brave, handsome, noble, affable, polite;
Most courteous to that race become of late
So fiercely scornful of all kind advance,
Rude, bitter, coarse, implacable in hate
To Albion, plotting ever her mischance, --
Alas, fair verse! how false and out of date
Thy phrase sweet enemy applied to France!