Читать книгу The Complete Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell - James Russell Lowell - Страница 215

Since first I heard our Northwind blow,

Since first I saw Atlantic throw

On our grim rocks his thunderous snow,

I loved thee, Freedom; as a boy

The rattle of thy shield at Marathon

Did with a Grecian joy

Through all my pulses run;

But I have learned to love thee now

Without the helm upon thy gleaming brow, 160

A maiden mild and undefiled

Like her who bore the world's redeeming child;

And surely never did thine altars glance

With purer fires than now in France;

While, in their clear white flashes,

Wrong's shadow, backward cast,

Waves cowering o'er the ashes

Of the dead, blaspheming Past,

O'er the shapes of fallen giants,

His own unburied brood, 170

Whose dead hands clench defiance

At the overpowering Good:

And down the happy future runs a flood

Of prophesying light;

It shows an Earth no longer stained with blood,

Blossom and fruit where now we see the bud

Of Brotherhood and Right.