 | The Poems of Richard Watson Gilder |  |
AT LUTHER'S GRAVE
WITTENBERG
Here rests the heart whose throbbing shook the earth!High soul of courage, we do owe thee much;
Thee and thy warrior comrades, who the worth
Of freedom proved and put it to the touch!
Because, O Luther, thou the truth didst love,
And spake the truth out,—faced the sceptered lie,—
E'en we, thy unforgetting heirs, may move
Fearless, erect, unshackled, 'neath the sky.
Yet at this shrine who doth forever linger
Shall know not that true freedom Luther won;
“Onward,” his spirit points, with lifted finger,
“Onward lies truth! My work were never done
If souls by me awakened climbed not higher—
Ever to seek, and fear not, the celestial fire.”
| The Poems of Richard Watson Gilder | |