English poem
Vi
by Walter Crane (1863–1929)
Hear how they cry from every side, The voices from the deepening strife! The fields are white, the world is wide; Arise! take heart! take hope! take Life!
WILD Wind! Thy tameless spirit lifts my mind— Thou, all night long the troubled earth hast torn, And tossed the stormy trees until the morn, Which struggles now unto its noon, half blind
With those wild locks which ye have cast across The face of heaven, scarcely showing through Her eyes between are still of stedfast blue, And still look calm above the woods ye toss;
As they were wrathful waves of that green main From whence ye come, beyond the sunset’s grave, To freshen on the sunburnt hills, and lave The summer-thirsty fields with gracious rain.
Hark! in the wood thy voice, a lion, roars! Beneath thy breath upon the parchèd hill, Shudders the wasted grass, and shrieketh shrill, As though it feared thee: but thy spirit soars
To lash the fossil waves of hill and dale Ye may not move, yet melted make appear Their solid sides, enrobed in rains ye bear Across the valley like a falling veil.
But, night or day, thy ceaseless song to me Makes melody, and music wild and free, And I rejoice to drink thy breath for ye Do bring the sound and savour of the sea.
AWAKE, O world! From thy long sleep arise! For a new light breaks in reddening skies: Shake off your rust-eaten fetters, ye slaves! And claim the Freedom of winds and of waves: Unwind! O unwind all the swathing clothes Of bondage and ignorance, nations’ woes: Break the dark might of enchantment’s spell, Burst all thy bonds, and the chorus swell! Kindle on every high hill a clear fire: Plant in the cities, on tower and spire, The banner of Freedom! Wide let it wave Over sea and land, and over the grave Of buried oppression, and chains decayed Of tyrant’s power: till the ghosts shall be laid Of fraud and violence, bloodshed and war: And, burned in the flame of freedom’s fair star, All wrongs shall be dust and ashes on earth— Dead leaves from whose death shall spring a new birth Which shall spread and grow like a fruitful tree, And under its branches shall live the Free.