 | The Emperor's Vigil, and The Waves And The War |  |
59
II. Calls to Battle.
Go! flutter your eagles aloft on the wind
In the hands of the bond and thrall:
One soft timid sigh of the sister I love
Shall lead me beyond them all.
In the hands of the bond and thrall:
One soft timid sigh of the sister I love
Shall lead me beyond them all.
Go! shatter the echoes with trumpet and drum,
And summon your slaves to the fray:
To think of one smile of the girl of my heart,
Shall carry me farther than they.
And summon your slaves to the fray:
To think of one smile of the girl of my heart,
Shall carry me farther than they.
Go! call on the name of the monarch and priest;
But England speaks nobler to me—
To think that I strike for its poorest and least,
Will make me strike deeper than ye.
But England speaks nobler to me—
To think that I strike for its poorest and least,
Will make me strike deeper than ye.
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Go! let all your prelates in proudest array
Bid crouching battalions depart:
But what is it all to a single prayer
That soars from my mother's heart?
Bid crouching battalions depart:
But what is it all to a single prayer
That soars from my mother's heart?
| The Emperor's Vigil, and The Waves And The War | |