Shall mine eyes behold thy glory, O my country? Shall mine eyes behold thy glory?
Or shall the darkness close around them, ere the sun-blaze breaks at last upon thy story?
When the nations ope for thee their queenly circle, as a sweet new sister hail thee,
Shall these lips be sealed in callous death and silence, that have known but to bewail thee?
Shall the ear...
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At Venice
lo Venice, gay with color, lights and song,
Calls from St. Mark’s with ancient voice and strange:
I am the Witch of Cities! glide along
My silver streets that never wear by change
Of years: forget the years, and pain, and wrong,
And ever sorrow reigning men among.
Know I can soothe thee, please and marry thee
To my... -
From the German by Charles Timothy Brooks
THE STORM is out; the land is roused;
Where is the coward who sits well housed?
Fie on thee, boy, disguised in curls,
Behind the stove, ’mong gluttons and girls!
A graceless, worthless wight thou must be;
No German maid desires thee,
No German song inspires thee,
No German... -
Anonymous translation from the German
A VOICE 1 resounds like thunder-peal,
’Mid dashing waves and clang of steel:—
“The Rhine, the Rhine, the German Rhine!
Who guards to-day my stream divine?”Chorus Dear Fatherland, no danger thine:
Firm stand thy sons to watch the Rhine!They stand, a hundred thousand strong,
Quick to... -
Sienna
I Love thee, love thee, Giulio!
Some call me cold, and some demure,
And if thou hast ever guessed that so
I love thee … well;—the proof was poor,
And no one could be sure.Before thy song (with shifted rhymes
To suit my name) did I undo
The persian? If it moved sometimes,
Thou hast not seen a hand push... -
O Mother of a mighty race,
Yet lovely in thy youthful grace!
The elder dames, thy haughty peers,
Admire and hate thy blooming years;
With words of shame
And taunts of scorn they join thy name.For on thy cheeks the glow is spread
That tints thy morning hills with red;
Thy step,—the wild deer’s rustling feet
Within... -
NOR force nor fraud shall sunder us! O ye
Who north or south, or east or western land,
Native to noble sounds, say truth for truth,
Freedom for freedom, love for love, and God
For God; O ye who in eternal youth
Speak with a living and creative flood
This universal English, and do stand
Its breathing book; live worthy... -
The South-land boasts its teeming cane,
The prairied west its heavy grain,
And sunset’s radiant gates unfold
On rising marts and sands of gold!Rough, bleak, and hard, our little State
Is scant of soil, of limits strait;
Her yellow sands are sands alone,
Her only mines are ice and stone!From autumn frost to April rain,...
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From “The Building of the Ship”
THOU, too, sail on, O Ship of State!
Sail on, O UNION, strong and great!
Humanity with all its fears,
With all the hopes of future years,
Is hanging breathless on thy fate!
We know what Master laid thy keel,
What Workmen wrought thy ribs of steel,
Who made each mast, and sail, and rope,
What... -
[1861]
lay down the axe, fling by the spade;
Leave in its track the toiling plough;
The rifle and the bayonet-blade
For arms like yours were fitter now;
And let the hands that ply the pen
Quit the light task, and learn to wield
The horseman’s crookèd brand, and rein
The charger on the battle-field.Our country...