Tiresias, and Other Poems/Freedom

by Alfred Tennyson

For works with similar titles, see Freedom.

FREEDOM.

 

I.O thou so fair in summers gone,While yet thy fresh and virgin soulInform'd the pillar'd Parthenon,The glittering Capitol;

II.So fair in southern sunshine bathed,But scarce of such majestic mienAs here with forehead vapour-swathedIn meadows ever green;

III.For thou—when Athens reign'd and Rome,Thy glorious eyes were dimm'd with painTo mark in many a freeman's homeThe slave, the scourge, the chain;

IV.O follower of the Vision, stillIn motion to the distant gleamHowe'er blind force and brainless willMay jar thy golden dream

V.Of Knowledge fusing class with class,Of civic Hate no more to be,Of Love to leaven all the mass,Till every soul be free;

VI.Who yet, like Nature, wouldst not marBy changes all too fierce and fastThis order of her Human Star,This heritage of the past;

VII.O scorner of the party cryThat wanders from the public good,Thou—when the nations rear on highTheir idol smear'd with blood,

VIII.And when they roll their idol down—Of saner worship sanely proud;Thou loather of the lawless crownAs of the lawless crowd;

IX.How long thine ever-growing mindHath still'd the blast and strown the wave,Tho' some of late would raise a windTo sing thee to thy grave,

X.Men loud against all forms of power—Unfurnish'd brows, tempestuous tongues,Expecting all things in an hour—Brass mouths and iron lungs!