Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, PATRIOTISM AND FREEDOM, by JOANNA BAILLIE



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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

PATRIOTISM AND FREEDOM, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Insensible to high heroic deeds
Last Line: Can bear the humbling thought -- the quickening, maddening smart?
Variant Title(s): William Wallace
Subject(s): Freedom; Patriotism; Liberty


INSENSIBLE to high heroic deeds,
Is there a spirit cloth'd in mortal weeds,
Who at the patriot's moving story,
Devoted to his country's good,
Devoted to his country's glory,
Shedding for freemen's rights his generous blood, --
Listeneth not with deep heaved sigh,
Quivering nerve, and glistening eye,
Feeling within a spark of heavenly flame,
That with the hero's worth may humble kindred claim?
If such there be, still let him plod
On the dull foggy paths of care,
Nor raise his eyes from the dank sod
To view creation fair:
What boots to him the wondrous works of God?
His soul with brutal things hath ta'en its earthly lair.

Oh! who so base as not to feel
The pride of freedom once enjoy'd,
Though hostile gold or hostile steel
Have long that bliss destroy'd?
The meanest drudge will sometimes vaunt
Of independent sires, who bore
Names known to fame in days of yore,
Spite of the smiling stranger's taunt;
But recent freedom lost -- what heart
Can bear the humbling thought -- the quickening, maddening smart?





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