Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, STRASBOURG, by VICTOR GUSTAVE PLARR


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

STRASBOURG, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: I saw thee sombrely enthralled
Last Line: Seen thro' glad tears, the tricolors!
Subject(s): Flags; France; Happiness; National Songs; Pride; Progress; Strasbourg, France; Victory; Joy; Delight; National Anthems; Self-esteem; Self-respect


I saw thee sombrely enthralled,
My Strasbourg, in Autumnal haze
The year ere War, and I recalled
Thy fame and inly sang thy praise.

I hardly dared to dream that thou
Wouldst ever face the Dawn again.
I marked the sorrow on thy brow,
Thy silence, and thy ordered pain.

Oh, do we dream as oft we did—
Watchers on visionary walls?
There's something quivers that was hid:
On the blue Vosges—a trumpet calls!

We tore the linen on the bed
Long since for flags to deck our doors:
Long since with vine-lees blue and red
We dyed our secret tricolors.

Bring forth the dear flags hidden long,
Ring all ye bells for years misrung:
O, Alsace, be one burst of song,
One nosegay to our Frenchmen flung!

Nay, practise now one last restraint,
Lest awful gladness drive us mad.
Keep slow our heart-beats lest we faint
And die through being over-glad.

O, eyes, hold back your tears, and lips
Forbear to tremble ... Oh my God,
My blood beats like to lashing whips:
They tread where late the Prussian trod!

As, after death, a bridegroom might
Meet his dead bride among the blessed,
With indescribable delight
And awed timidity possest,

The City thrills, beholding where
The first file of deliverers comes
With clarion-blast that rends the air
And thunder of immortal drums.

Then bursts into a rhythmic flow
Freedom's tremendous lay of lays,
First sung in Strasbourg long ago—
The Marseillaise, the Marseillaise!

Hearts are too full for tongues to cry ...
Mark, where th'old exquisite minster soars,
Amid the hush, remote, on high,
Seen thro' glad tears, the tricolors!





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