HELLAS.
19
Hassan.
Even as that moon
Renews itself———
Even as that moon
Renews itself———
Mahmud.
Shall we be not renew'd!
Far other bark than our's were needed now
To stem the torrent of descending time:
The Spirit that lifts the slave before his lord
Stalks through the capitals of armed kings,
And spreads his ensign in the wilderness:
Exults in chains; and, when the rebel falls,
Cries like the blood of Abel from the dust;
And the inheritors of the earth, like beasts
When earthquake is unleashed, with ideot fear
Cower in their kingly dens—as I do now.
What were Defeat when Victory must appal?
Or Danger, when Security looks pale?—
How said the messenger—who, from the fort
Islanded in the Danube, saw the battle
Of Bucharest?—that—
Shall we be not renew'd!
Far other bark than our's were needed now
To stem the torrent of descending time:
The Spirit that lifts the slave before his lord
Stalks through the capitals of armed kings,
And spreads his ensign in the wilderness:
Exults in chains; and, when the rebel falls,
Cries like the blood of Abel from the dust;
And the inheritors of the earth, like beasts
When earthquake is unleashed, with ideot fear
Cower in their kingly dens—as I do now.
What were Defeat when Victory must appal?
Or Danger, when Security looks pale?—
How said the messenger—who, from the fort
Islanded in the Danube, saw the battle
Of Bucharest?—that—
Hassan.
Ibrahim’s scymitar
Drew with its gleam swift victory from heaven,
To burn before him in the night of battle—
A light and a destruction.
Ibrahim’s scymitar
Drew with its gleam swift victory from heaven,
To burn before him in the night of battle—
A light and a destruction.
