"Once, when over purple mountains Died away the Grecian sun, And the far Cyllenian ranges Paled and darkened, one by one,--
"Fell the Turk, a bolt of thunder, Cleaving all the quiet sky, And against his sharp steel lightnings Stood the Suliote but to die.
"Woe for the weak and halting!
The crescent blazed behind A curving line of sabres, Like fire before the wind!
"Last to fly, and first to rally, Rode he of whom I speak, When, groaning in his bridle-path, Sank down a wounded Greek.
"With the rich Albanian costume Wet with many a ghastly stain, Gazing on earth and sky as one Who might not gaze again.
"He looked forward to the mountains, Back on foes that never spare, Then flung him from his saddle, And placed the stranger there.
"'Allah! hu!' Through flashing sabres, Through a stormy hail of lead, The good Thessalian charger Up the slopes of olives sped.
"Hot spurred the turbaned riders; He almost felt their breath, Where a mountain stream rolled darkly down Between the hills and death.
"One brave and manful struggle,-- He gained the solid land, And the cover of the mountains, And the carbines of his band!"
"It was very great and noble,"
Said the moist-eyed listener then, "But one brave deed makes no hero; Tell me what he since hath been!"
"Still a brave and generous manhood, Still an honor without stain, In the prison of the Kaiser, By the barricades of Seine.
"But dream not helm and harness The sign of valor true; Peace hath higher tests of manhood Than battle ever knew.
"Wouldst know him now? Behold him, The Cadmus of the blind, Giving the dumb lip language, The idiot-clay a mind.
"Walking his round of duty Serenely day by day, With the strong man's hand of labor And childhood's heart of play.
"True as the knights of story, Sir Lancelot and his peers, Brave in his calm endurance As they in tilt of spears.
"As waves in stillest waters, As stars in noonday skies, All that wakes to noble action In his noon of calmness lies.
"Wherever outraged Nature Asks word or action brave, Wherever struggles labor, Wherever groans a slave,--
"Wherever rise the peoples, Wherever sinks a throne, The throbbing heart of Freedom finds An answer in his own.
"Knight of a better era, Without reproach or fear!
Said I not well that Bayards And Sidneys still are here?"
1853.
RANTOUL.
No more fitting inscription could be placed on the tombstone of Robert Rantoul than this: "He died at his post in Congress, and his last words were a protest in the name of Democracy against the Fugitive-Slave Law."
One day, along the electric wire His manly word for Freedom sped; We came next morn: that tongue of fire Said only, "He who spake is dead!"
Dead! while his voice was living yet, In echoes round the pillared dome!
Dead! while his blotted page lay wet With themes of state and loves of home!
Dead! in that crowning grace of time, That triumph of life's zenith hour!
Dead! while we watched his manhood's prime Break from the slow bud into flower!
Dead! he so great, and strong, and wise, While the mean thousands yet drew breath; How deepened, through that dread surprise, The mystery and the awe of death!
From the high place whereon our votes Had borne him, clear, calm, earnest, fell His first words, like the prelude notes Of some great anthem yet to swell.
We seemed to see our flag unfurled, Our champion waiting in his place For the last battle of the world, The Armageddon of the race.
Through him we hoped to speak the word Which wins the freedom of a land; And lift, for human right, the sword Which dropped from Hampden's dying hand.
For he had sat at Sidney's feet, And walked with Pym and Vane apart; And, through the centuries, felt the beat Of Freedom's march in Cromwell's heart.
He knew the paths the worthies held, Where England's best and wisest trod; And, lingering, drank the springs that welled Beneath the touch of Milton's rod.
No wild enthusiast of the right, Self-poised and clear, he showed alway The coolness of his northern night, The ripe repose of autumn's day.
His steps were slow, yet forward still He pressed where others paused or failed; The calm star clomb with constant will, The restless meteor flashed and paled.
Skilled in its subtlest wile, he knew And owned the higher ends of Law; Still rose majestic on his view The awful Shape the schoolman saw.
Her home the heart of God; her voice The choral harmonies whereby The stars, through all their spheres, rejoice, The rhythmic rule of earth and sky.
We saw his great powers misapplied To poor ambitions; yet, through all, We saw him take the weaker side, And right the wronged, and free the thrall.
Now, looking o'er the frozen North, For one like him in word and act, To call her old, free spirit forth, And give her faith the life of fact,--
To break her party bonds of shame, And labor with the zeal of him To make the Democratic name Of Liberty the synonyme,--
We sweep the land from hill to strand, We seek the strong, the wise, the brave, And, sad of heart, return to stand In silence by a new-made grave!
There, where his breezy hills of home Look out upon his sail-white seas, The sounds of winds and waters come, And shape themselves to words like these.
"Why, murmuring, mourn that he, whose power Was lent to Party over-long, Heard the still whisper at the hour He set his foot on Party wrong?
"The human life that closed so well No lapse of folly now can stain The lips whence Freedom's protest fell No meaner thought can now profane.
"Mightier than living voice his grave That lofty protest utters o'er; Through roaring wind and smiting wave It speaks his hate of wrong once more.
"Men of the North! your weak regret Is wasted here; arise and pay To freedom and to him your debt, By following where he led the way!"
1853.