Two Nations by Algernon Charles Swinburne
page 39 of 62 (62%)
page 39 of 62 (62%)
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Power to make, save, and kill,
Knowledge and choice, to take extremities and weigh; In the soul's hand to smite Strength, in the soul's eye sight; That to the soul art even as is the soul to clay; Now to this people be Love; come, to set them free, With feet that tread the night, with eyes that sound the day. ANTISTROPHE 6 Thou that wast on their fathers dead As effluent God effused and shed, Heaven to be handled, hope made flesh, Break for them now time's iron mesh; Give them thyself for hand and head, Thy breath for life, thy love for bread, Thy thought for spirit to refresh, Thy bitterness to pierce and sting, Thy sweetness for a healing spring. Be to them knowledge, strength, life, light, Thou to whose feet the centuries cling And in the wide warmth of thy wing Seek room and rest as birds by night, O thou the kingless people's king, To whom the lips of silence sing, Called by thy name of thanksgiving Freedom, and by thy name of might |
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