Europe, the 72d and 73d Years T. S.
Leaves of Grass (1860)
1.Suddenly out of its stale and drowsy lair, the lair ofslaves,Like lightning it le’pt forth, half startled at itself,Its feet upon the ashes and the rags—its hands tightto the throats of kings.
2.O hope and faith!O aching close of exiled patriots' lives!O many a sickened heart!Turn back unto this day, and make yourselvesafresh.
3.And you, paid to defile the People! you liars, mark!Not for numberless agonies, murders, lusts,For court thieving in its manifold mean forms, wormingfrom his simplicity the poor man's wages,For many a promise sworn by royal lips, and broken,and laughed at in the breaking,Then in their power, not for all these did the blowsstrike revenge, or the heads of the nobles fall;The People scorned the ferocity of kings.
4.But the sweetness of mercy brewed bitter destruction,and the frightened rulers come back,
Each comes in state with his train—hangman, priest,tax-gatherer,Soldier, lawyer, lords, jailers, and sycophants.
5.Yet behind all, hovering, stealing—lo, a Shape,Vague as the night, draped interminably, head frontand form, in scarlet folds.Whose face and eyes none may see,Out of its robes only this—the red robes, lifted bythe arm,One finger crook'd, pointed high over the top, likethe head of a snake appears.
6.Meanwhile, corpses lie in new-made graves—bloodycorpses of young men;The rope of the gibbet hangs heavily, the bullets ofprinces are flying, the creatures of power laughaloud,And all these things bear fruits—and they are good.
7.Those corpses of young men,Those martyrs that hang from the gibbets—thosehearts pierced by the gray lead,Cold and motionless as they seem, live elsewhere withunslaughter'd vitality.
8.They live in other young men, O kings!They live in brothers, again ready to defy you!They were purified by death—they were taught andexalted.
9.Not a grave of the murdered for freedom, but growsseed for freedom, in its turn to bear seed,Which the winds carry afar and re-sow, and the rainsand the snows nourish.
10. Not a disembodied spirit can the weapons of tyrantslet loose,But it stalks invisibly over the earth, whispering,counselling, cautioning.
11. Liberty! let others despair of you! I never despairof you.
12. Is the house shut? Is the master away?Nevertheless be ready—be not weary of watching,He will soon return—his messengers come anon.