Versos English James Russell Lowell Iv

English poem

Iv

by

Listen in the reader

Elfish I may rightly name thee; We enslave, but cannot tame thee; With fierce snatches, now and then, Thou pluckest at thy right again, And thy down-trod instincts savage To stealthy insurrection creep While thy wittol masters sleep, And burst in undiscerning ravage: Then how thou shak'st thy bacchant locks! While brazen pulses, far and near, Throb thick and thicker, wild with fear And dread conjecture, till the drear Disordered clangor every steeple rocks!