Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE FREEING OF CRETE, by LEWIS MORRIS (1833-1907)


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE FREEING OF CRETE, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: At length! At last! At last!
Last Line: In the great peace and concord that shall be!
Subject(s): Crete; Freedom; Liberty


AT length! at last! at last!
The weary suffering years are past!
Baffled the tigerish Turk slinks from his bleeding prey.
At last! O hapless Isle, at last!
Thy mother draws thee closer to her breast,
Thou, who long ages this auspicious day
A waitedst, but in v in,
Done is at length, thy age-long pain,
And thou at last, at rest!

Strange are the ironies of Time and Fate,
And dark the pathway of the Eternal feet,
For lo, it was but yesterday that we,
We whose hearts yearned to set the captive free,
Knowing the story of thy misery,
Waited the Hellenic victories in vain.
Ah me! it was a time of pain
For us, who from our earliest boyish years,
With thee were nourished at one mother's breast! --
Her brave sons, fearless, dashed their lives in vain
Against the foemen's strong o'ermastering line,
By alien hirelings drilled for victory.
Oh wasted harvest-fields of Thessaly,
On which divine Olympus looking, saw
The brute invader trampling Right and Law,
And weak defenders dying but in vain!
Ah me! it was a time of tears,
Blank disappointment sinking to despair,
Almost our sad eyes seemed to see
The loathly Ottoman once more again
Befoul the city of the violet-crown;
Loud shrieks of outrage on the affrighted air,
Column again and temple crashing down,
Barbarian vengeance wreaked on all things fair.
Ah me! it was a time of pain and tears.

But now! but now! though scarce a year has gone,
To her high goal our Hellas marches on!
The jealous Powers their mutual hates forget,
And suddenly from failure, from defeat,
She springs unconquered yet.
From clouds and darkness beams her rising sun,
A miracle, a miracle is done!
In full accord the o'ermastering navies ride,
To work the will of Europe side by side,
And Peace accomplishes what War denied --
The net is broken and the captive free!
The sufferings of the dead unhappy Past,
The wrongs, the tyrannies are fled at last.
"Begone!" the banded Admirals cried, "Begone!"
And without stroke of sword or flash of gun
The Oppressor slunk away, his rule of Evil done.

Therefore we sing to-day
"Te Deum" for the victory of Peace;
O Power of Good, at last make Wrong to cease!
We, whose brave sons have died, and not in vain,
In treacherous massacre, with torture slain,
To free our Hellas; we,
Whose England is the mother of all the Free,
We praise thee, and we pray,
Deliver soon the shining Company
That stud the purple of the AEgean sea;
The land of Philip's conquering son;
The rock-built islet of the blind old man,
King of all Singers still; fair regions long,
Shrined in our English Poet's generous song,
Where long unchecked the spoiler loved to slay,
And rob and ravish, as he would to-day.
Bind in close union all who love to speak
The sacred accents of the Greek;
Till at the last the victory won,
Hellas regains her children one by one!
Deliver all, dread Power! and set them free
From the foul Turk's decrepit tyranny!

And ye, O new-born freemen brave,
Put off the ignoble vices of the slave,
Forget the faults which long oppression breeds,
The feuds, the jealousies of warring creeds.
Be love your guide, not hate,
Not for yourselves take heed but for the State,
Forget the Past, till a pervading Peace
Shall bind you fast to Greece.

Then ye, oh triple peaks of virgin snow,
Which on the warring strifes and woes below,
Looked down unmoved through the sad centuries
Ere Homer sang, no more again shall see
The secular misery;
The hamlet flaring from the smoke's black shroud,
The huddled flocks, and herds, the affrighted crowd;
But smile upon the untroubled, peaceful plain,
Where labour reaps its due; the untrampled grain,
The unrifled olive, and the laden vine;
On corn and oil and wine,
And on the rippling breadths of purple sea,
Lit by white wings of many an argosy,
In the great Peace and Concord that shall be!





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...
Home: PoetryExplorer.net