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         England im Jahr 1819.

    Ein König, alt, toll, blind, dem Tod verfallen; –
         Prinzen, die Hefen ihres trägen Stamms, '
         Verhöhnt als kothiger Abhub kothigen Schlamms; –
    Negierer, fühllos, taub den Klagen allen,

    5      Blutegeln gleich ihr Mordwerk (Gott verdamm’s!)
    Verrichtend, bis sie blutsatt niederfallen; –
    Ein...

  • Hail to the land whereon we tread,
        Our fondest boast!
    The sepulchre of mighty dead,
    The truest hearts that ever bled,
    Who sleep on glory’s brightest bed,
        A fearless host:
    No slave is here;—our unchained feet
    Walk freely, as the waves that beat
        Our coast.

    Our fathers crossed the ocean’s wave
        To...

  • The Stately Homes of England,
    How beautiful they stand!
    Amidst their tall ancestral trees,
    O’er all the pleasant land;
    The deer across their greensward bound
    Through shade and sunny gleam,
    And the swan glides past them with the sound
    Of some rejoicing stream.

    The merry Homes of England!
    Around their hearths by night,...

  • From “Snow-Bound”
    THE SUN that brief December day
    Rose cheerless over hills of gray,
    And, darkly circled, gave at noon
    A sadder light than waning moon.
    Slow tracing down the thickening sky
    Its mute and ominous prophecy,
    A portent seeming less than threat,
    It sank from sight before it set.
    A chill no coat, however stout,...

  • From “Aurora Leigh”
    WHOEVER lives true life, will love true love.
    I learned to love that England. Very oft,
    Before the day was born, or otherwise
    Through secret windings of the afternoons,
    I threw my hunters off and plunged myself
    Among the deep hills, as a hunted stag
    Will take the waters, shivering with the fear
    And passion of...

  • She stands, a thousand-wintered tree,
      By countless morns impearled;
    Her broad roots coil beneath the sea,
      Her branches sweep the world;
    Her seeds, by careless winds conveyed,
      Clothe the remotest strand
    With forests from her scatterings made,
    New nations fostered in her shade,
      And linking land with land.

    O ye by...

  •   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 Breaking waves dashed high
      On a stern and rock-bound coast,
    And the woods against a stormy sky
      Their giant branches tossed;

    And the heavy night hung dark
      The hills and waters o’er,
    When a band of exiles moored their bark
      On the wild New England shore.

    Not as the conqueror comes,
      They, the true-hearted,...