FROM the disgraceful sleep in which you lie For so long time already, France, awake! Breathe freely, proudly, and your faults forsake, Nor be your proper slave and enemy. Resume your freedom, cure your malady, Your honour of past times, O France, retake! Henceforth from all with giddy humours break, And from the crooked paths of folly fly. In the old annals of your kings you read How thousand times you did in war succeed O'er those who for your ruin would combine. Save for the wounds you deal to your own breast, Those ravening harpies, want and famine prest, Had never dared to cross the German Rhine. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...BALLAD OF THE GIBBET by FRANCOIS VILLON LACEDEMONIAN INSTRUCTION by WILLIAM BLAKE LAURA SLEEPING; ODE by CHARLES COTTON IF WE MUST DIE by CLAUDE MCKAY UNDERWOODS: BOOK 1: 21. REQUIEM by ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON WINE AND CITRON by ABU ABD ALLAH EN TOUR; A SONG SEQUENCE: 2. TREASURE by ALBERTA BANCROFT |