Classic Poem

I.

W HY pour the ruby wine,
For glad carousal, brothers mine,
In the sparkling glass that flashes
In your hand,
When, mourning, sits in dust and ashes
Our Fatherland?

II.

What means the joyous song
Of the festive bridal throng?
Oh! let music no more waken
The echoes of our strand,
For the bridegroom hath forsaken
Our Fatherland!

III.

No more your masses falter,
Trembling priests, before the altar.
Can prayer avail the dead or dying?
Oh! vain demand!
Prostrate, trodden on the ground, is lying
Our Fatherland!

IV.

Ye princes, fling ye down
Your blood-bought jewelled crown —
Bear the circlet on your brow no more,
Nor signet on your hand;
For, shivering, stands before your door
Our Fatherland!

V.

Woe to ye rich; in gloom
Hath toll'd your hour of doom —
There, reck'ning up your gold, ye sit in state
In palace grand,
While Lazarus is dying at your gate,
Our Fatherland!

VI.

And woe to you, ye poor —
Want and scorn ye must endure;
Yet before ye many noble jewels shine
In the sand.
Ah! they are patriots' tears — even mine —
For Fatherland!

VII.

But the Poet's mission
Is but prophetic vision;
To him the daring heart is granted —
Not the hand.
He may cease — the death-song has been chanted
For Fatherland!