Classic Poem

FRANCE .

" Long live our king, good Harry of Navarre! "
Shouted the soldiery through Ivry's heat;
Thou led'st them on to victory complete,
Proud in the glamour of thy Huguenot star!

Good king, thy glorious deeds immortal are;
France, old in years, thy memory still doth greet,
And peasants love thy great name to repeat,
Sapient in council, valorous in war.

I see thy Bearn face as histories tell,
Frank, open, winning, resolutely free;
I see thee armed with helmet and poitrel.
And then again, in thy broad Tuilerie,
I hear thy joyous oath " Ventre-saint-Gris, "
And see thee kiss thy swan-necked Gabrielle!