I O THOU so fair in summers gone, While yet thy fresh and virgin soul Inform'd the pillar'd Parthenon, The glittering Capitol; II So fair in southern sunshine bathed, But scarce of such majestic mien As here with forehead vapor-swathed In meadows ever green; III For thou -- when Athens reign'd and Rome, Thy glorious eyes were dimm'd with pain To mark in many a freeman's home The slave, the scourge, the chain; IV O follower of the Vision, still In motion to the distant gleam Howe'er blind force and brainless will May jar thy golden dream V Of Knowledge fusing class with class, Of civic Hate no more to be, Of Love to leaven all the mass, Till every soul be free; VI Who yet, like Nature, wouldst not mar By changes all too fierce and fast This order of her Human Star, This heritage of the past; VII O scorner of the party cry That wanders from the public good, Thou -- when the nations rear on high Their idol smear'd with blood, VIII And when they roll their idol down -- Of saner worship sanely proud; Thou loather of the lawless crown As of the lawless crowd; IX How long thine ever-growing mind Hath still'd the blast and strown the wave, Tho' some of late would raise a wind To sing thee to thy grave, X Men loud against all forms of power -- Unfurnish'd brows, tempestuous tongues, Expecting all things in an hour -- Brass mouths and iron lungs! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...WHEN LOVE WAS BORN by SARA TEASDALE AUTUMN DIALOGUE by LOUIS UNTERMEYER A MAN TO A WOMAN by WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS THE WILD FLOWER'S SONG by WILLIAM BLAKE THE RIGHT MUST WIN by FREDERICK WILLIAM FABER |