A batch of war ballads By Martin F. Tupper |
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POSTSCRIPT. |
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 | A batch of war ballads |  |
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POSTSCRIPT.
It is well: you have wisely considered the chance,
And seen that it pays to belong
To the phalanx of right, with England and France
Array'd against Russia and wrong!
It is well: we commend your discretion, though slow;
But had you stood sooner with us,
The world's thunder-Word, without need of a Blow,
Would have settled this recreant Russ.
And seen that it pays to belong
To the phalanx of right, with England and France
Array'd against Russia and wrong!
It is well: we commend your discretion, though slow;
But had you stood sooner with us,
The world's thunder-Word, without need of a Blow,
Would have settled this recreant Russ.
But, mark you!—we must not be hampered by friends,
Nor hinder'd in victory's hour
From stèrnly exacting the strictest amends,
And crushing despotical power:
Our Ægis shall be to you Ajax's shield,
And Teucer may shoot from behind,
But what we will loose in the fairly-fought field
Diplomacy never shall bind!
Nor hinder'd in victory's hour
From stèrnly exacting the strictest amends,
And crushing despotical power:
Our Ægis shall be to you Ajax's shield,
And Teucer may shoot from behind,
But what we will loose in the fairly-fought field
Diplomacy never shall bind!
Vienna can scatter her friends with the pen
Much more than her foes with the sword;
Berlin may do damage to decenter men
Than Vladimir's barbarous horde:
Allies, with a conscience made wicked and weak
By “Poland,” that ghost never laid,
Of trusting too strongly “each giftbearing Greek”
May sensibly make us “afraid.”
Much more than her foes with the sword;
Berlin may do damage to decenter men
Than Vladimir's barbarous horde:
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By “Poland,” that ghost never laid,
Of trusting too strongly “each giftbearing Greek”
May sensibly make us “afraid.”
Our motto is simply—“May God guard the right!”
Our trust, that the “Truth shall prevail;”
Our text, that “Accursed in everyone's sight
The land-mark-remover shall fail:”
Our only real fear, lest cousins and kings
Should hinder the swing of the whip,—
For each has been guilty of similar things
Unwept by the heart or the lip!
Our trust, that the “Truth shall prevail;”
Our text, that “Accursed in everyone's sight
The land-mark-remover shall fail:”
Our only real fear, lest cousins and kings
Should hinder the swing of the whip,—
For each has been guilty of similar things
Unwept by the heart or the lip!
Let Hungary, Italy, Poland, be righted;
And Austria turn from her crimes:
Let Prussia's good king to his people united
Grant all that he promised betimes:
Let the Pope from his crafts and his cruelties cease,
And Tuscany's Duke be ashamed,
And Bomba of Naples his martyrs release,
As Gladstone indignantly claim'd!
And Austria turn from her crimes:
Let Prussia's good king to his people united
Grant all that he promised betimes:
Let the Pope from his crafts and his cruelties cease,
And Tuscany's Duke be ashamed,
And Bomba of Naples his martyrs release,
As Gladstone indignantly claim'd!
Let both Principalities, under one crown,
Our bulwark be fix'd as a rock;
Let Russia, degraded, cut up, and cut down,
Be made the world's byeword and mock:
Let happiness, Liberty, brotherhood, reason
Advance with all peoples around,—
And glad shall we be if an Emperor's treason
Occasions so blest a rebound!
Our bulwark be fix'd as a rock;
Let Russia, degraded, cut up, and cut down,
Be made the world's byeword and mock:
Let happiness, Liberty, brotherhood, reason
Advance with all peoples around,—
And glad shall we be if an Emperor's treason
Occasions so blest a rebound!
| A batch of war ballads | |