WEEP on, weep on, your hour is past; Your dreams of pride are o'er; The fatal chain is round you cast, And you are men no more. In vain the hero's heart hath bled; The sage's tongue hath warn'd in vain; -- O Freedom! once thy flame hath fled, It never lights again! Weep on -- perhaps in after days, They'll learn to love your name; When many a deed may wake in praise That long hath slept in blame. And when they tread the ruin'd aisle Where rest at length the lord and slave, They'll wondering ask, how hands so vile Could conquer hearts so brave? "'T was fate," they'll say, "a wayward fate, Your web of discord wove; And, while your tyrants join'd in hate, You never join'd in love. But hearts fell off that ought to twine, And man profaned what God had given, Till some were heard to curse the shrine Where others knelt to Heaven." | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE BOTTLES AND THE WINE by GEORGE SANTAYANA PISGAH SIGHTS by ROBERT BROWNING MEN WHO MARCH AWAY' (SONG OF THE SOLDIERS) by THOMAS HARDY A SHROPSHIRE LAD: 18 by ALFRED EDWARD HOUSMAN THE SCORPION by WILLIAM PLOMER THE HOUSE OF LIFE: 86. LOST DAYS by DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI |