O STRONG Republic of the nobler years Whose white feet shine beside time's fairer flood That shall flow on the clearer for our blood Now shed, and the less brackish for our tears; When time and truth have put out hopes and fears With certitude, and love has burst the bud, If these whose powers then down the wind shall scud Still live to feel thee smite their eyes and ears, When thy foot's tread hath crushed their crowns and creeds. Care thou not then to crush the beast that bleeds, The snake whose belly cleaveth to the sod, Nor set thine heel on men as on their deeds; But let the worm Napoleon crawl untrod, Nor grant Mastai the gallows of his God. 1869. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE WHITE CASCADE by WILLIAM HENRY DAVIES ELEGY: 9. THE AUTUMNAL [BEAUTY] by JOHN DONNE A BANJO SONG by PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR PHILOMELA: PHILOMELA'S ODE [THAT SHE SANG IN HER ARBOR] by ROBERT GREENE SONNET: 146 by WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE WHEN I PERUSE THE CONQUER'D FAME by WALT WHITMAN SEVEN SAD SONNETS: 5. SHE THINKS OF THE FAITHFUL ONE by MARY REYNOLDS ALDIS |