Society and the World

Christians have burnt each other, quite persuaded That all the Apostles would have done as they did.

Christians have burnt each other, quite persuaded That all the Apostles would have done as they did.

Sorrow is knowledge: they who know the most Must mourn the deepest o’er the fatal truth, The Tree of Knowledge is not that of Life.

Eternal Spirit of the chainless Mind! Brightest in dungeons, Liberty! thou art.

The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold, And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold; And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea, When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee.

The Cincinnatus of the West, Whom envy dared not hate, Bequeathed the name of Washington To make man blush there was but one!

Mark! where his carnage and his conquests cease! He makes a solitude, and calls it—peace!

Such hath it been—shall be—beneath the sun The many still must labor for the one.

Butcher’d to make a Roman holiday!

“While stands the Coliseum, Rome shall stand; When falls the Coliseum, Rome shall fall; And when Rome falls—the world.” 5

O Rome! my country! city of the soul!

Yet, Freedom! yet thy banner, torn, but flying, Streams like the thunderstorm against the wind.

The starry Galileo, with his woes.

She looks a sea Cybele, fresh from ocean, Rising with her tiara of proud towers At airy distance, with majestic motion, A ruler of the waters and their powers.

Where Venice sate in state, throned on her hundred isles.

I stood in Venice on the Bridge of Sighs, A palace and a prison on each hand.

I live not in myself, but I become Portion of that around me: and to me High mountains are a feeling, but the hum Of human cities torture.

History’s purchased page to call them great.

Millions of tongues record thee, and anew Their children’s lips shall echo them, and say— “Here, where the sword united nations drew, Our countrymen were warring on that day!” And this is much, and all which will not pass away. 4

Millions of tongues record thee, and anew Their children’s lips shall echo them, and say— “Here, where the sword united nations drew, Our countrymen were warring on that day!” And this is much, and all which will not pass away. 4

Did ye not hear it?—No! ’twas but the wind, Or the car rattling o’er the stony street. On with the dance! let joy be unconfined; No sleep till morn, when Youth and Pleasure meet To chase the glowing hours with flying feet.

There was a sound of revelry by night, And Belgium’s capital had gather’d then Her beauty and her chivalry, and bright The lamps shone o’er fair women and brave men. A thousand hearts beat happily; and when Music arose with its voluptuous swell, Soft eyes look’d love to eyes which spake again, And all went merry as a marriage bell. But hush! hark! a deep sound strikes like a rising knell!

Who would be free themselves must strike the blow.

War, war is still the cry, “War even to the knife!” 3