Poems; original and translated by Charles Rann Kennedy ... and Two Poems by the Rev. Rann Kennedy. New Edition. By Charles Rann Kennedy |
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DEMOSTHENES. |
 | Poems; original and translated |  |
DEMOSTHENES.
Oh for a voice like thine, Demosthenes,An eloquence to us but little known,
Drawn from the oracles of faith alone!
How welcome would it be in times like these!
It was the spirit of thy fatherland
In thunder crying—Athens must be free!
What patriot, thus arous'd, could idle be?
What freeman could the sacred call withstand?
Truth is most mighty, spoken by the true.
Ye sons of Athens, never had the cant
Of the declaimer or the sycophant
Led ye against the spears of Macedon:
All without struggle had the victor won,
And dying Freedom had not slept with you.
| Poems; original and translated | |