 | The Forest Minstrel, and Other Poems |  |
148
SONNET.
[Oh love of country!—flame of liberty!]
Oh love of country!—flame of liberty!Thou glow'dst with fervour in the Grecian breast;
Led Codrus to the hostile camp, to wrest
Chains from his land, and die to make her free.
Oh! glorious pass of old Thermopylæ,
Grave of Leonidas! an altar thou
Sacred to freedom, and to thee shall bow
The curse of earth, iron-sceptred tyranny.
Deep in the dungeon-gloom of Carthage bound,
Heard Regulus a call,—the voice he knew;
It pleaded for his country:—“Ne'er shall sound,”
Said he, “thy captives' wail:” and then he threw
A glance of triumph o'er the land he saved,
And gloried in the chains that else had her enslaved.
| The Forest Minstrel, and Other Poems | |