HURRAH! thou lady proud and fair, Hurrah! Germania mine! What fire is in thine eye, as there Thou bendest o'er the Rhine! How in July's full blaze dost thou Flash forth thy sword, and go, With heart elate and knitted brow, To strike the invader low! Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah! Germania! No thought hadst thou, so calm and light, Of war or battle plain, But on thy broad fields, waving bright, Didst mow the golden grain, With clashing sickles, wreaths of corn, Thy sheaves didst garner in, When, hark! across the Rhine War's horn Breaks through the merry din! Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah! Germania! Down sickle then and wreath of wheat Amidst the corn were cast, And, starting fiercely to thy feet, Thy heart beat loud and fast; Then with a shout I heard thee call: "Well, since you will, you may! Up, up, my children, one and all, On to the Rhine! Away!" Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah! Germania! From port to port the summons flew, Rang o'er our German wave; The Oder on her harness drew, The Elbe girt on her glaive; Neckar and Weser swell the tide, Main flashes to the sun, Old feuds, old hates are dash'd aside, All German men are one! Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah! Germania! Suabian and Prussian, hand in hand, North, South, one host, one vow! "What is the German's Fatherland?" Who asks that question now? One soul, one arm, one close-knit frame, One will are we today; Hurrah, Germania! thou proud dame, Oh, glorious time, hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah! Germania! Germania now, let come what may, Will stand unshook through all; This is our country's festal day; Now woe betide thee, Gaul! Woe worth the hour a robber thrust Thy sword into thy hand! A curse upon him that we must Unsheathe our German brand! Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah! Germania! For home and hearth, for wife and child, For all loved things that we Are bound to keep all undefiled From foreign ruffianry! For German right, for German speech, For German household ways, For German homesteads, all and each, Strike home through battle's blaze! Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah! Germania! Up, Germans, up, with God! The die Clicks loud—we wait the throw! Oh, who may think without a sigh What blood is doom'd to flow? Yet, look thou up, with fearless heart! Thou must, thou shalt prevail! Great, glorious, free as ne'er thou wert, All hail, Germania, hail! Hurrah! Victoria! Hurrah! Germania! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...TO A FRIEND IN THE MAKING by MARIANNE MOORE AUF WIEDERSEHEN! SUMMER by JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL CONSTANTINOPLE by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD POET FLAYS TEMPTATIONS OF CITY LIFE by MORRIS GILBERT BISHOP WRITTEN FOR A LADY'S COMMON-PLACE BOOK by JOHN GARDINER CALKINS BRAINARD |