Читать книгу The Complete Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell - James Russell Lowell - Страница 210

With eye averted, and an anguished frown,

Loathingly glides the Muse through scenes of strife,

Where, like the heart of Vengeance up and down, 50

Throbs in its framework the blood-muffled knife;

Slow are the steps of Freedom, but her feet

Turn never backward: hers no bloody glare;

Her light is calm, and innocent, and sweet,

And where it enters there is no despair:

Not first on palace and cathedral spire

Quivers and gleams that unconsuming fire;

While these stand black against her morning skies,

The peasant sees it leap from peak to peak

Along his hills; the craftsman's burning eyes 60

Own with cool tears its influence mother-meek;

It lights the poet's heart up like a star;

Ah! while the tyrant deemed it still afar,

And twined with golden threads his futile snare.

That swift, convicting glow all round him ran;

'Twas close beside him there,

Sunrise whose Memnon is the soul of man.