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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


A HOLY NATION by RICHARD REALF

First Line: LET LIBERTY RUN ONWARD WITH THE YEARS
Last Line: THE BASE INFECTIONS OUR LOW GREEDS HAVE BRED.
Subject(s): FREEDOM; LIBERTY;

LET Liberty run onward with the years,
And circle with the seasons; let her break
The tyrant's harshness, the oppressor's spears;
Bring ripened recompenses that shall make
Supreme amends for sorrow's long arrears;
Drop holy benison on hearts that ache;
But clearer radiance into human eyes,
And set the glad earth singing to the skies.

Clean natures coin pure statutes. Let us cleanse
The hearts that beat within us; let us now
Clear to the roots our falseness and pretence,
Tread down our rank ambitions, overthrow
Our braggart moods of puffed self-consequence,
Plough up our hideous thistles which do grow
Faster than maize in May time, and strike dead
The base infections our low greeds have bred.



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