IMMORTAL Mind! thy burning torch A deathless halo flings Around the Prophets crucified, And Sybaritic Kings; We chant, to-day, a pæan song To thy divinest flashes— To our imperishable one, The Mill Boy of the Slashes! The fervid breast of Nature poured Its deluge to his sips, The bee-winged breezes charmed anew Hymettus to his lips, Till, like a cleaving peak, his thoughts To sunward regions ran, And God beheld beneath His throne A mountain-hearted man. His lispings fell like vesper dews Upon the alien leaves, Waking their inspirations through The palpitating sheaves; Then from those clarion "wood-notes wild" Anointed dreams upsprung, Wedding the lightning of the brain To the thunder of the tongue! We—we have seen him in the pride Of his colossal youth, We—we have heard his vestal vows To the Eternal Truth; We—we have felt our spirits quail, Our very beings bow, When the supernal tempests shook That monumental brow! And never yet, since morning stars Sang over Galilee, Have nations seen the peer of this Apostle of the free! His was the avalanche of wrath That smites the despot down, And girds the brows of Justice with An undisheveled crown. His trumpet-tones re-echoed like Evangels to the free, Where Chimborazo views a world Mosaic'd in the sea; And his proud form shall stand erect In that triumphal car Which bears to the Valhalla gates Heroic Bolivar! He spoke for Greece, and freedom flew Along her sacred rills, Waking the mighty souls that slept On Marathonian hills; While bold Bozzaris launched his flag Upon the gulf of night, And hurled a living thunderbolt Against the Ottomite! The pillars of the Union quaked Before discordant shocks, When Heaven had sent its liberal snows Upon his honored locks; Though all the angels beckoned him, His conquering arm uprose, And wrenched his country's flag away From its rebellious foes. Then with perennial laurel wreaths The matchless mind had wrought, His ladened bark went drifting on To find the "Kings of Thought"; And though the stately vessel long Hath left its earthly strand, The helmsman's voice re-echoes back From out the Phantom Land. Live, Patriot, live! while oceans chafe Their adamantine bars— While mailed Orion flames his plume 'Mid bright-battalioned stars; Live, Patriot, live! while glory thrills The heart-strings of the free, 'And Mississippi pours its grand Libations to the sea! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...DIRGE OF RORY O'MORE; 1642 by AUBREY THOMAS DE VERE THE WATER MILL by SARAH DOUDNEY TO DOCTOR EMPIRIC by BEN JONSON SONNET FOR A PICTURE by ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE THE PLACE OF REMEMBRANCE by CECIL FRANCES ALEXANDER |