Classic Poem

(The Third Anniversary of the Battle of Leipsic.)

Should now some spirit here alight,
At once a bard and warrior brave,
Such as in Freedom's glorious fight
His life to serve his country gave,
He soon to German ears would bring
A stirring, sabre-edged song,
Not such as I alas! shall sing,
But thunder-loud, divinely strong: —

" Men speak of triumphs loud and gay,
Of bonfires bright in years gone by,
But who is found to tell to-day
What such rejoicings signify?
'Twould seem that spirits must descend,
Lured from the dead by holy zeal,
To shew you where their wounds extend,
Wounds that your hands may plainly feel.

And first, ye dukes and princes, tell
Have ye forgot that battle-hour
When on your knees ye humbly fell
And magnified a Higher Power?
If for your fame the people fought,
If ye have ever found them true,
'Tis yours, to vow no more for naught,
But what ye praised in them, to do!

Ye people, who have much endured,
Have ye that day of toil forgot?
That day, that matchless fame procured —
How comes it that it profits not?
The foreign hordes ye taught to flee,
There shines at home no guiding light;
Ye art not free, ye are not free,
Ye have not aye held fast the right.

Ye sages, must I hint to you
In learned works so deeply read,
How well th' unlettered simple crew
In Freedom's cause their life-blood shed?
Think ye that in the flames of strife
The age was, phaenix-like, re-made
Only to bring the eggs to life
That ye so busily have laid?

Ye councillors and courtiers all,
With tarnished stars on breasts of stone,
Who of the fight by Leipsic's wall
Till now, perchance, have never known,
Know that upon this festal day
God holds a solemn court on high —
But ah! ye hear not what I say,
Or deem a spirit's voice can lie!

The lay I yearned to sing is o'er,
I seek the skies from whence I came;
What here has come mine eyes before
I to the heavenly host proclaim.
I censure not, nor glorify,
Small hope on every side is found;
Yet saw I many a kindling eye
And many a heart I heard to bound! "