Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, PERSIA TO EUROPE, by EDNA DEAN PROCTOR


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

PERSIA TO EUROPE, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: You scorn us? You dream we are ready to yield
Last Line: By ormuzd and allah — our rule shall not die!
Alternate Author Name(s): Dean
Subject(s): Europe; God; Iran; Soldiers; Persia


YOU scorn us? You dream we are ready to yield
Our realm at the threat of your armies afield?
You, race of wild rovers or forests your home
When we towered resplendent ere Athens or Rome? —
Our grandeurs of old we can never forget,
And the Mede and the Persian abide with us yet.

From the gulfs of the south to Tehrân and Tabriz'
We are rousing from sleep and submission and ease;
Is it just to assail us, yet hardly awake,
When we need all our valor and vigor to break
The bonds that have kept us in weakness and wrong? —
Away with your dirges and cheer us with song!

For by our Avesta, that gospel of God
Leading upward the soul to His crystal abode;
By thy columns, Persepolis, crowning the plain
Where age after age saw thy glorious reign;
By the snow of Elburz'; by the Sun in the sky;
By Ormuzd and Allah — our rule shall not die!





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