So 'twas for this that with consuming rage Your grandsires brake their bonds, and with a flood Of rich, and ancient, and tyrannic blood Washed Serfdom out from the annals of their age; For this the barefoot Armies did engage Upon a hundred fields; for this the good Grey-headed Hugo sang of Brotherhood In many a perfect line and laurelled page! It was for this! Well, if all shame be o'er, Fawn on the Russ, and when he smites one cheek Turn to him the other too, and since 'twere weak Too seem half-hearted in such vile collapse, Trail through your festal streets the old crimson caps, And down each cesspool stuff a Tricolor! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SIMON THE CYRENIAN SPEAKS by COUNTEE CULLEN THE CAPTIVE LION by WILLIAM HENRY DAVIES A GIRL'S GARDEN by ROBERT FROST THE BUGLER'S FIRST COMMUNION by GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS THE LOVER SHOWETH HOW HE IS FORSAKEN by THOMAS WYATT A CAUTION TO POETS by MATTHEW ARNOLD THE SMUGGLER'S LEAP; A LEGEND OF THANET by RICHARD HARRIS BARHAM |