FROM the disgraceful sleep in which you lie For so long time already, France, awake! Breathe freely, proudly, and your faults forsake, Nor be your proper slave and enemy. Resume your freedom, cure your malady, Your honour of past times, O France, retake! Henceforth from all with giddy humours break, And from the crooked paths of folly fly. In the old annals of your kings you read How thousand times you did in war succeed O'er those who for your ruin would combine. Save for the wounds you deal to your own breast, Those ravening harpies, want and famine prest, Had never dared to cross the German Rhine. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SONNETS FROM THE PORTUGUESE: 22 by ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING ODE TO SIMPLICITY by WILLIAM COLLINS (1721-1759) PHILIP, MY KING by DINAH MARIA MULOCK CRAIK PREPARATORY MEDITATIONS, 1ST SERIES: 8 by EDWARD TAYLOR MAGIC TOURS by CHARLOTTE LOUISE BERTLESEN PSALM 133 by OLD TESTAMENT BIBLE THE CARPENTER'S STORY by ARCHIE BINNS SHAKESPEARE by HENRY AMES BLOOD HINC LACHRIMAE; OR THE AUTHOR TO AURORA: 40 by WILLIAM BOSWORTH |