Destruction of the Bastille
- 1Heard'st thou yon universal cry,
- 2And dost thou linger still on Gallia's shore?
- 3Go, Tyranny! beneath some barbarous sky
- 4Thy terrors lost and ruin'd power deplore!
- 5What tho' through many a groaning age
- 6Was felt thy keen suspicious rage,
- 7Yet Freedom rous'd by fierce Disdain
- 8Has wildly broke thy triple chain,
- 9And like the storm which Earth's deep entrails hide,
- 10At length has burst its way and spread the ruins wide.
- 11In sighs their sickly breath was spent; each gleam
- 12Of Hope had ceas'd the long long day to cheer;
- 13Or if delusive, in some flitting dream,
- 14It gave them to their friends and children dear--
- 15Awaked by lordly Insult's sound
- 16To all the doubled horrors round,
- 17Oft shrunk they from Oppression's band
- 18While Anguish rais'd the desperate hand
- 19For silent death; or lost the mind's controll,
- 20Thro' every burning vein would tides of Frenzy roll.
- 21But cease, ye pitying bosoms, cease to bleed!
- 22Such scenes no more demand the tear humane;
- 23I see, I see! glad Liberty succeed
- 24With every patriot virtue in her train!
- 25And mark yon peasant's raptur'd eyes;
- 26Secure he views his harvests rise;
- 27No fetter vile the mind shall know,
- 28And Eloquence shall fearless glow.
- 29Yes! Liberty the soul of Life shall reign,
- 30Shall throb in every pulse, shall flow thro' every vein!
- 31Shall France alone a Despot spurn?
- 32Shall she alone, O Freedom, boast thy care?
- 33Lo, round thy standard Belgia's heroes burn,
- 34Tho' Power's blood-stain'd streamers fire the air,
- 35And wider yet thy influence spread,
- 36Nor e'er recline thy weary head,
- 37Till every land from pole to pole
- 38Shall boast one independent soul!
- 39And still, as erst, let favour'd Britain be
- 40First ever of the first and freest of the free!