O, DOUBTLESS ye can trample and enchain, Sow wrath and breathe out winter; but can ye Persuade the muttering bondsman he is free, Or with a signal build the summer again? O, ye can hold the rivulets of the plain A little while from nuptials with the sea, But the fierce mountain-stream of Liberty Not edicts and not hosts may long restrain. For this is of the heights and of the deeps, Born of the heights and in the deeps conceived. This, from the lofty places of the mind, Gushes pellucid, vehemently upheaved; And tears and heart's blood hallow it, as it sweeps Invincibly on, with Might no Might can bind. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THIRD BOOK OF AIRS: SONG 18. THE CHARM by THOMAS CAMPION TO THE PIOUS MEMORY OF THE YOUNG LADY MRS. ANNE KILLIGREW by JOHN DRYDEN PREPARATORY MEDITATIONS, 1ST SERIES: 1 by EDWARD TAYLOR SPRING [IN WAR-TIME] by HENRY TIMROD WHY DID YOU DEPART AT DUSK? by CLARISSA M. BAILEY THE ROWFANT CATALOGUE by WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT BRITAIN'S DAUGHTER by GORDON BOTTOMLEY FOUR EPISTLES: MIRACLE AT THE FEAST OF PENTECOST: 2 by JOHN BYROM |