THE LYRE AND THE SWORD. Where the clarion soundeth joyously SECOND SPEAKER. But a Lyre hung near that falchion, Ah, bring not thou the voice of tears 369 * Pronounced sōrd, by Walker, Smart, and the best English authorities. FIRST SPEAKER. The Sword spake yet more proudly: Or the shame for those who fly? To own thee for a son? How should he brook his line's disgrace? THIRD SPEAKER. Out spake that youthful warrior : * Where my true father fell : A blush to stain my cheek! "And thou, fond Lyre, remember In slōthfulness and sleep; Still have thy noblest strains been poured Still loves the Lyre to grace the Sword So let it ever be! The Sword † to win my victor-wreath, ANON. GOD băde the Sun with golden steps sublime He whispered in the listening ear of Time, Advance! *It may be more effective to omit this line in the delivery. Here a hand on the First's shoulder; at Lyre on the Second's, and a look upward. He bade the guiding spirits of the Stars, Advance! Sun, Stars, and Time, obey the voice, and all The River at its bubbling fountain cries Advance! The Clouds proclaim, like heralds, through the skies, Throughout the world the mighty Master's laws The Earth is full of life, the swelling seeds Advance! And Summer hours, like flowery-harnessed steeds, To Man's most wondrous hand the same voice cried Advance! Go clear the woods, and o'er the bounding tide Advance! Go draw the marble from its secret bed, And make the cedar bend its giant head: Let domes and columns through the wondering air Advance! The world, O Man! is thine. But wouldst thou share? Advance! Unto the soul of man the same voice spoke, Advance! From out the chaos, thunder-like, it broke, Go track the comet in its wheeling race, Advance! For Love and Hope, borne by the coming years, O, Ireland! — O, my country! wilt thou not Advance? Wilt thou not share the world's progressive lot Advance? Must seasons change, and countless years roll on, * And never see the crescent moon of Hope Advance? "T is time thine heart and eye had wider scope Advance! Dear brothers, wake! look up! be firm! be strong! From out the starless night of fraud and wrong, Advance! The chains have fallen from off thy wasted hands, Advance! Proclaim that then thou wear'st no manacles, Advance! Advance! thou must advance or perish now; Advance! Advance! Why live with wasted heart and brow; Advance! Advance! or shrink at once into the grave; Be bravely free, or artfully a slave: Why fret thy master, if thou must have one? Advance! "Advance three steps, the glorious work is done!”- The first is COURAGE - 't is a giant stride! Advance! With bounding steps up Freedom's rugged side Advance! KNOWLEDGE will lead you to the dazzling heights, Advance! Be wise, be just; with will as fixed as Fate's, Advance! LXVIII. - GREECE. D. F. M'CARTHY, HE who hath bent him o'er the dead, The last of danger and distress, Ajalon derives its renown from the command of Joshua : "Sun, stand thou still on Gibeon, and thou, moon, in the valley of Ajalon." GREECE. Before Decay's effacing fingers Have swept the lines where beauty lingers, The rapture of repose, that's there, That fires not, wins. not, weeps not, now, The doom he dreads, yet dwells upon Some moments, say, one treacherous hour, - The first last look by death revealed! 'Tis Greece but living Greece no more! We start for soul is wanting there. That parts not quite with parting breath; A gilded halo hovering round decay, The farewell beam of feeling past away! Spark of that flame, perchance of heavenly birth, 373 Which gleams, but warms no more its cherished earth. Clime of the unforgotten brave! Whose land from plain to mountain-cave That this is all remains of thee? |