Also known as Milton’s “Sonnet 18,” “On the Late Massacre at Piedmont” has been described by the famous essayist William Hazlitt as filled with “prophetic fury.” ' On the Late Massacre in Piedmont' is a sonnet by the English poet John Milton inspired by the Easter massacre of Waldensians in Piedmont by the troops of Charles Emmanuel II, Duke of Savoy in April 1655. The triple tyrant that from these may grow O'er all th' Italian fields where still doth sway The vales redoubled to the hills, and they Slain by the bloody Piedmontese that rolled Who were thy sheep and in their ancient fold
When all our fathers worshiped stocks and stones įorget not: in thy book record their groans
Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold,Įven them who kept thy truth so pure of old, Avenge, O Lord, thy slaughtered saints, whose bones
