Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE SUNIAN PALLAS, by JAMES GATES PERCIVAL Poet's Biography First Line: By sunian's rock I took my way Last Line: "go, fight, and win the conqueror's rest." Subject(s): Sounion (cape), Greece; Colonna; Sunium | ||||||||
BY Sunium's rock I took my way Along the blue AEgean sea, That bright in golden sunset lay Round the fair islands of the free: A form of more than mortal mould On the high rock sublimely rose; The bosses of her buckler rolled Like eyes of lightning on her foes: I looked, -- the blue-eyed goddess there Stood glorious in the evening air. She stood and raised her brazen lance, That glittered like a meteor's beam; Its light below in quivering dance Flashed gayly on the ocean stream: Round her tall casque her plumy crest Shook with a terrible sign of power, And the grim AEgis on her breast Told to the Turk his destined hour; She spake, -- and like the rush of flame Her voice in awful murmurs came. "Sons, worthy of your warrior sires! Yours is the cause of earth and heaven. Shame to the heart that faints or tires, Till the last sacrifice is given! Go fearlessly along your path, -- It mounts to liberty and fame; Go, with an unrelenting wrath, And conquer till the Turk is tame; When the red fires of battle glare, Remember, -- I am with ye there. "These rocks that rise so rudely round Were consecrate to me of old; Here the Athenian sternly bound, For rapid fight, his mantle's fold: He saw the Persian tents below; They filled and blackened all the plain; He rushed, -- and like a torrent's flow, Swept them, and hurled them to the main: This was the wrath that made him free, The fearless wrath of liberty. "What if a cold and coward world Leave ye to work your way alone, Be the new banner never furled Till liberty is all our own. Tell them we ask no other aid Than our own hearts in such a cause; No, none but Freemen's hands were made To fight and win for equal laws. Go, with a firm, confiding breast, -- Go, fight, and win the conqueror's rest." | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE CORAL GROVE by JAMES GATES PERCIVAL TO SENECA LAKE by JAMES GATES PERCIVAL A PICTURE by JAMES GATES PERCIVAL A PICTURE: VALLEY OF CATSKILL RIVER NORTH OF THE CATSKILL MOUNTAINS by JAMES GATES PERCIVAL A PLATONIC BACCHANAL SONG by JAMES GATES PERCIVAL A TALE by JAMES GATES PERCIVAL A TRIBUTE TO THE BRAVE by JAMES GATES PERCIVAL AN ODE TO MUSIC: 1 by JAMES GATES PERCIVAL AN ODE TO MUSIC: 10 by JAMES GATES PERCIVAL AN ODE TO MUSIC: 11 by JAMES GATES PERCIVAL |
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