"THE Isles of Greece! the Isles of Greece!" In blood and bondage. Ah, to know, To find the land, the hand, the brand Would lay the turban'd despot low! I know a land, an ocean isle, That can, that would, but may not lend Her name, her power, ye islemen brave, The fetters from your limbs to rend. Yet she, to Moslem allies true, Gave name and power, gave hand and brand, Gave thousands of her gallant sons To perish on the Crimean strand. "How are the mighty fallen!" Now, Each generous impulse we restrain: When British freedom walks abroad, She drags at foot the clog and chain! There is a hand that wields a brand, That hand unsheathed it never, never, But to descend, with lightning flash, The bonds of tyranny to sever. Oh! might that hand unsheath it now, And bid it gleam on Ægean waters, To save for Greece, from Moslem hands, The fairest of her sea-born daughters. It may not be. Behind the scenes Sits old Diplomacy, still weaving The web of statecraft, made to hide "The tricks of state" and cool deceiving. Yet still that hand, that brand are thine, O Garibaldi! Ever, ever, That hand is raised, that brand unsheathed, The oppressed, the trampled to deliver! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...I SING OF LOVE by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON HIDE AND SEEK by SARA TEASDALE MIMNERMUS IN CHURCH by WILLIAM JOHNSON CORY INTELLECT by RALPH WALDO EMERSON DOWN THE MISSISSIPPI: 1. EMBARKATION by JOHN GOULD FLETCHER SATIRES OF CIRCUMSTANCE: 12. AT THE DRAPER'S by THOMAS HARDY |