Poems by John Hay
page 72 of 144 (50%)
page 72 of 144 (50%)
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Who stood demurely by my side.
"Who were your friends?" I asked the maid, Taking a tea-cup from its shelf. "This audience is disclosed," she said, "Whenever a man makes a fool of himself." Liberty What man is there so bold that he should say "Thus, and thus only, would I have the sea"? For whether lying calm and beautiful, Clasping the earth in love, and throwing back The smile of heaven from waves of amethyst; Or whether, freshened by the busy winds, It bears the trade and navies of the world To ends of use or stern activity; Or whether, lashed by tempests, it gives way To elemental fury, howls and roars At all its rocky barriers, in wild lust Of ruin drinks the blood of living things, And strews its wrecks o'er leagues of desolate shore,-- Always it is the sea, and men bow down Before its vast and varied majesty. So all in vain will timorous ones essay To set the metes and bounds of Liberty. For Freedom is its own eternal law; |
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