Poems (Hooper)/A Vision of the Hour
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A VISION OF THE HOUR.
Upon a lofty steep, against whose shores
The billows of Eternity were hurled,
Two mighty shapes of Empire I beheld,
Who claimed to rule the world.
The billows of Eternity were hurled,
Two mighty shapes of Empire I beheld,
Who claimed to rule the world.
One was a splendid, half-barbaric queen,
Whose glance majestic sought the Eastern skies:
The other, beauteous sovereign, made earth bright
With her benignant eyes.
Whose glance majestic sought the Eastern skies:
The other, beauteous sovereign, made earth bright
With her benignant eyes.
And she, the goddess,—grand and seraph-fair,—
Spake thus in tones that rang o'er land and sea:
"I shape, afar beneath the Western stars,
The Empire of the Free.
Spake thus in tones that rang o'er land and sea:
"I shape, afar beneath the Western stars,
The Empire of the Free.
"For love of me, who am so wondrous fair,
The nations of the world forsake their lands,
And come to claim God's noblest gift since Christ—
Liberty—from my hands.
The nations of the world forsake their lands,
And come to claim God's noblest gift since Christ—
Liberty—from my hands.
"I break the captive's galling chain: I give
The tyrant-trodden and the weary rest:
Mine is the realm where guards the Evening Star
The sunset-purpled West."
The tyrant-trodden and the weary rest:
Mine is the realm where guards the Evening Star
The sunset-purpled West."
Then spake the other proud, imperial shape:
"The Crescent yet shall wane beneath my tread:
My gaze is fixed where in far Orient skies
Flameth the morning's red.
"The Crescent yet shall wane beneath my tread:
My gaze is fixed where in far Orient skies
Flameth the morning's red.
"Upon my banner burns the blazoned Cross:
The Pagan plagues that curse the Land of Day
Beneath the sweep of my imperial robe
Shall pass like mists away.
The Pagan plagues that curse the Land of Day
Beneath the sweep of my imperial robe
Shall pass like mists away.
"We are the great co-heiresses of Time
To that grand heritage, the world to be:
Tried friends, fond sisters—what shall part us twain?
Columbia—Muscovy!
To that grand heritage, the world to be:
Tried friends, fond sisters—what shall part us twain?
Columbia—Muscovy!
"We look not backward to a shadowy Past,
Where pallid specters wander and make moan:
O sister! sovereign of the Sunset Land!
The Future is our own!"
Where pallid specters wander and make moan:
O sister! sovereign of the Sunset Land!
The Future is our own!"
Unto these twain a third queen sudden came,
With flashing eyes and wild locks flowing free,
Who cried aloud, in clarion-sounding tones,
"Room!—room for Germany!
With flashing eyes and wild locks flowing free,
Who cried aloud, in clarion-sounding tones,
"Room!—room for Germany!
"Place for me, sisters, on the world's wide throne:
The stains of War are red upon my hands,
Won, like the dust that dims my garment's hem,
In my assailer's lands.
The stains of War are red upon my hands,
Won, like the dust that dims my garment's hem,
In my assailer's lands.
"The Spoiler's steel flashed bright before my breast,
Earth held her breath to hear my dying groans:
I hurled him back to gasp his life away
'Mid wreck of shattered thrones.
Earth held her breath to hear my dying groans:
I hurled him back to gasp his life away
'Mid wreck of shattered thrones.
"Give place and greeting, sister of the Dawn!
For mine are empire now, and victory:
Smile on me, sister of the Sunset Land!
I too shall yet be free!"
For mine are empire now, and victory:
Smile on me, sister of the Sunset Land!
I too shall yet be free!"