NOW launch the boat upon the wave -- The wind is blowing off the shore -- I will not live, a cowering slave, In these polluted islands, more -- Beyond the wild, dark-heaving sea, There is a better home for me. The wind is blowing off the shore, And out to sea the streamers fly -- My music is the dashing roar My canopy the stainless sky -- It bends above so fair a blue, That Heaven seems opening on my view. I will not live, a cowering slave, Though all the charms of life may shine Around me, and the land, the wave, And sky be drawn in tints divine -- Give lowering skies and rocks to me, If there my spirit can be free. Sweeter, than spicy gales, that blow From orange groves with wooing breath, The winds may from these islands flow -- But 'tis an atmosphere of death; The lotus, which transformed the brave And haughty to a willing slave. Softer, than Minder's winding stream, The wave may ripple on this coast; And brighter, than the morning beam, In golden swell, be round it tost -- Give me a rude and stormy shore, So power can never threat me more. Brighter than all the tales, they tell Of eastern pomp and pageantry, Our sunset skies in glory swell, Hung round with glowing tapestry -- The horrors of a wintry storm Swell brighter o'er a freeman's form. The spring may here with autumn twine, And both combined may rule the year, And fresh-blown flowers and racy wine In frosted clusters still be near -- Dearer the wild and snowy hills, Where hale and ruddy freedom smiles. Beyond the wild, dark-heaving sea, And ocean's stormy vastness o'er, There is a better home for me, A welcomer and dearer shore; There hands, and hearts, and souls, are twined, And free the man, and free the mind. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...HABEAS CORPUS by HELEN MARIA HUNT FISKE JACKSON THE SONG OF HIAWATHA: HIAWATHA AND MUDJEKEEWIS by HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW THE V-A-S-E by JAMES JEFFREY ROCHE HOME THOUGHTS FROM FRANCE by ISAAC ROSENBERG THE SHEPHEARDES CALENDER: APRIL by EDMUND SPENSER A LULLABY by LAWRENCE ALMA-TADEMA ONLY THE HEART IS HAUNTED by VERNE BRIGHT |