And wherefore feels he thus? Because its shore Nor conqueror's foot nor despot's may defile, But Freedom walks unarmed about the isle, And Peace sits cooing beside each man's door. Beyond these straits, the wild-beast mob may roar, Elsewhere the veering demagogue beguile: We, hand in hand with the Past, look on and smile, And tread the ways our fathers trod before. What though some wretch, whose glory you may trace Past lonely hearths and unrecorded graves, Round his Sword-sceptre summoning swarms of slaves, Menace @3our@1 shores with conflict or disgrace, -- We laugh behind the bulwark of the waves, And fling the foam defiant in his face. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ZINNIAS by ANNA EMILIA BAGSTAD SOME SWEET DAY by LEWIS J. BATES MAGNIFICENT CRY by HELEN BRYANT THE APPEAL TO HAROLD by HENRY CUYLER BUNNER A BOOK OF AIRS: SONG 41 by THOMAS CAMPION SONGS OF THE SEA CHILDREN: 100 by BLISS CARMAN |