Prophesyings which grew articulate—50
They seize me—I must speak them!—be they fate!
strophe i
Naked, beneath the lidless eye of Heaven!
Elvsian City, which to calm enchantest
The mutinous air and sea! they round thee, even 55
As sleep round Love, are driven!
Metropolis of a ruined Paradise
Long lost, late won, and yet but half regained!
Bright Altar of the bloodless sacrifice,
Which armèd Victory offers up unstained 60
To Love, the flower-enchained!
Thou which wert once, and then didst cease to be,
Now art, and henceforth ever shalt be, free.
If Hope, and Truth, and Justice can avail,—
Hail, hail, all hail! 65
strophe ii
Which from the groaning earth
Leap'st, clothed in armour of impenetrable scale!
Last of the Intercessors!
Who 'gainst the Crowned Transgressors 70
Pleadest before God's love! Arrayed in Wisdom's mail,
Wave thy lightning lance in mirth
Nor let thy nigh heart fail,
Though from their hundred gates the leagued Oppressors
With hurried legions move! 75
Hail, hail, all hail!
antistrophe i α
Freedom and thee? thy shield is as a mirror
To make their blind slaves see, and with fierce gleam
To turn his hungry sword upon the wearer; 80
A new Actaeon's error
Shall theirs have been—devoured by their own hounds!
Be thou like the imperial Basilisk
Killing thy foe with unapparent wounds!
Gaze on Oppression, till at that dread risk 85
Aghast she pass from the Earth's disk:
Fear not, but gaze—for freemen mightier grow,
And slaves more feeble, gazing on their foe:—
If Hope, and Truth, and Justice may avail,
Thou shalt be great— All hail! 90
antistrophe ii α
From Nature's inmost shrine,
Strip every impious gawd, rend Error veil by veil;
