6
proem.
Like to all things in which we see
An errand and a destiny!
An errand and a destiny!
And would to Heaven that Freedom's voice,
Wild, bold, defying, strong,
Might sometimes, like a martial strain,
Peal through my fearless song!
The soft-toned lays of sycophants
May mine yet ring above,
Clear as a clarion, and yet
Their very soul be love!
Wild, bold, defying, strong,
Might sometimes, like a martial strain,
Peal through my fearless song!
The soft-toned lays of sycophants
May mine yet ring above,
Clear as a clarion, and yet
Their very soul be love!
O, not that Love who deems her sphere
Is not where falls the mortal tear,
Not by the mortal's hearth,
As ministering angel here,
Far from her place of birth;
With earnest, heavenward-gazing eye,
And spread wing fluttering for the sky,
All yearning to depart she seems,
And scarce permits, in her high dreams,
Her feet to touch the earth.
Away with such a love! Be mine
A love more glorious, more divine,
That boweth to the Infinite,
Is not where falls the mortal tear,
Not by the mortal's hearth,
As ministering angel here,
Far from her place of birth;
With earnest, heavenward-gazing eye,
And spread wing fluttering for the sky,
All yearning to depart she seems,
And scarce permits, in her high dreams,
Her feet to touch the earth.
Away with such a love! Be mine
A love more glorious, more divine,
That boweth to the Infinite,
