"HAD I a thousand mouths, a thousand tongues, A thousand throats inspired with brazen lungs," I'd rouse with thunder tones the slumbering world, Till Pope, and priest, and Papacy be hurl'd Down from their gilded thrones. The exulting earth Would hail with loud acclaim the glorious birth Of truth celestial, freedom, light, and love, Goodwill to man, and peace with heaven above. Seek ye for liberty?—shall she be found Where soul, and heart, and conscience all are bound? Where sinful man before a sinner kneels, To him his thoughts, his very heart reveals, What he has done, is doing; seeks to find Full absolution? Blind, oh bound and blind! "Woman, what think'st thou of thy husband now?" Said one who bore on his Satanic brow The stain of martyr's blood. Replied the wife, "I ever thought much of him when in life, But ne'er so much as now, when on the heath, Bathed in his martyr blood, he lies in death." Dark ruler of the Gaul, so sayest thou, "What thinks Italia of her hero now?" The captive rebel, he who dared to cope With Gallic legions, sent by France to prop Old John, the Jesuits' frail crumbling throne; Just going, going, going—must be gone. She loves him more than in his noon of life, When daring tyranny to mortal strife, "He came, he saw, he conquered," freely gave The kingdoms he had won—Oh, true and brave! To him he gave them who now stands aloof— Of kingly gratitude a pregnant proof. And we too love him with a love so deep It bleeds, it burns, but cannot stoop to weep For him, for him who lies in captive thrall. Oh, bitter draught, the wormwood and the gall, When drained at the behest of such as thou, With freedom's life-blood on thy branded brow! God save thee, Garibaldi! for the hour That soon will strike the knell of Papal power And Gallic intervention; and a home For truth and liberty be found in Rome. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THREE KINGS OF ORIENT by JOHN HENRY HOPKINS JR. BEVERLY SHORE IN WINTER by THOMAS GOLD APPLETON MEMORY'S VISIT by DEAN ALETTA BAILLIE WINTER STORES by CHARLOTTE BRONTE TOWARDS DEMOCRACY: PART 2. I HEARD THE VOICE OF THE WOODS by EDWARD CARPENTER THE PASSING OF SPAIN FROM THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE by SAMUEL VALENTINE COLE ODE; VALEDICTORY by CHARLES COTTON EPITAPH ON A LADY, WHO HAD LABOURED UNDER A CANCER by NATHANIEL COTTON |