And wherefore feels he thus? Because its shore Nor conqueror's foot nor despot's may defile, But Freedom walks unarmed about the isle, And Peace sits cooing beside each man's door. Beyond these straits, the wild-beast mob may roar, Elsewhere the veering demagogue beguile: We, hand in hand with the Past, look on and smile, And tread the ways our fathers trod before. What though some wretch, whose glory you may trace Past lonely hearths and unrecorded graves, Round his Sword-sceptre summoning swarms of slaves, Menace @3our@1 shores with conflict or disgrace, -- We laugh behind the bulwark of the waves, And fling the foam defiant in his face. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...VIGNETTES OVERSEAS: 11. HAMBURG by SARA TEASDALE ON THE DAY OF THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM BY TITUS by GEORGE GORDON BYRON THE WILLOWS by FRANCIS BRET HARTE HOMAGE TO SEXTUS PROPERTIUS: 7 by EZRA POUND SONNETS FOR PICTURES: A VENETIAN PASTORAL (BY GIOGIONE) by DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI OUT A-NUTTEN by WILLIAM BARNES IN JUNIOR YEAR by WILLIAM GRANT BARNEY |