FROM yonder gilded minaret Beside the steel-blue Neva set, I faintly catch, from time to time, The sweet, aerial midnight chime -- "God save the Tsar!" Above the ravelins and the moats Of the white citadel it floats; And men in dungeons far beneath Listen, and pray, and gnash their teeth -- "God save the Tsar!" The soft reiterations sweep Across the horror of their sleep, As if some demon in his glee Were mocking at their misery -- "God save the Tsar!" In his Red Palace over there, Wakeful, he needs must hear the prayer. How can it drown the broken cries Wrung from his children's agonies? -- "God save the Tsar!" Father they called him from of old -- Batuschka! . . . How his heart is cold! Wait till a million scourged men Rise in their awful might, and then -- God save the Tsar! |