Page:Hellas, a Lyrical Drama - Shelley (1822).djvu/25

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HELLAS.
5
SEMICHORUS 1st.
Life may change, but it may fly not;
Hope may vanish, but can die not;
Truth be veil'd, but still it burneth;
Love repulsed,—but it returneth!

SEMICHORUS 2d.
Yet were life a charnel where
Hope lay coffin'd with Despair;
Yet were truth a sacred lie,
Love were lust—

SEMICHORUS 1st.
If Liberty
Lent not life its soul of light,
Hope its iris of delight,
Truth its prophet’s robe to wear,
Love its power to give and bear.

CHORUS.
In the great morning of the world,
The spirit of God with might unfurl'd
The flag of Freedom over Chaos,
And all its banded anarchs fled,
Like vultures frighted from Imaus,
Before an earthquake’s tread.—
So from Time’s tempestuous dawn
Freedom’s splendour burst and shone:—
Thermopylæ and Marathon