KNEEL down in yon chapel, but only one prayer Should awaken the echoes its tall arches bear; Pale mother, pray not for the child on the bed, For the sake of the prisoner let matins be said; Old man, though the shade of thy grave-stone be nigh, Yet not for thyself raise thy voice to the sky; Young maiden, there kneeling, with blush and with tear, Name not the one name to thy spirit most dear. The prayer for another, to Heaven addrest, Comes back to the breather thrice blessing and blest. Beside the damp marsh, rising sickly and cold, Stand the bleak and stern walls of the dark prison hold; There fallen and friendless, forlorn and opprest, Are they -- once the flattered, obeyed, and carest, From the blessings that God gives the poorest exiled, His wife is a widow, an orphan his child; For years there the prisoner has wearily pined, Apart from his country, apart from his kind; Amid millions of freemen, one last lonely slave, He knoweth the gloom, not the peace of the grave. I plead not their errors, my heart's in the cause, Which bows down the sword with the strength of the laws; But France, while within her such memories live, With her triumphs around, can afford to forgive. Let Freedom, while raising her glorious brow, Shake the tears from her laurels that darken there now. Be the chain and the bar from yon prison removed, Give the children their parent, the wife her beloved. By the heart of the many is pardon assigned, For, Mercy, thy cause is the cause of mankind. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ODE ON INDOLENCE by JOHN KEATS SONNET: 102 by WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE ODES: BOOK 2: ODE 11. TO THE COUNTRY GENTLEMEN OF ENGLAND by MARK AKENSIDE LINES FOR THE HOUR by HAMILTON FISH ARMSTRONG YOU, WHO HAVE SONS TO SPARE! by L. ALLEN BECK AN HYMENEAL DIALOGUE: BRIDE AND GROOM by THOMAS CAREW TOWARDS DEMOCRACY: PART 4. THE SOUL TO THE BODY by EDWARD CARPENTER TO A LADY WHO WORE A LOCK OF HIS HAIR SET WITH DIAMONDS by WILLIAM COWPER |