POETRY.
TO FREEDOM.* FROM THE ROMAIC OF ALEXANDER SOUTSOS.
ART thou she whom once I joyed to gaze on, beautiful and brave, cueenlike in thy purple mantle, in thy band a flashing.glaive ? When the eagle crowned thy standards, thy unconquerable guide, And behind thy chariot marching, every son of Hellas cried, "Lo, my life upon thy altar am I ready to resign, Freedom, Goddess mine !"
On thy path nor thirst nor famine cast our dauntless courage down,
But with smiles of glad contentment welcomed we the martyr's crown ; And the maidens of Evrotas, o'er the bodies of the slain, 'Mid the pwans of our heroes blended their triumphal strain, 'Till the tombs of our forefathers echoed back thy name divine, Freedom, Goddess mine !
Dost thou eall to mird the glories of the goodly days of old, 'When our sires, our wives, and children in our legions were enrolled ?
When Miaonlis homeward bore, Towing sixty of the foemen's frigates to his native shore ! Till in joy at Hellas' glory laughed the glad &gamin brine, Freedom, Goddess mine !
Free, with fealty unplighted, Neither guile, nor hate, nor envy harboured we, in love united. 0 give back to us, kind Goddess, give us back that golden time ! Give us back the days of glory, days of chivalry sublime, In the saintly guise of virtue gliding from thy heavenly shrine.
Freedom, Goddess mine !
'Then the Corcyrman came, and like a smouldering mount of fire, Three long years our hapless country underwent affliction dire; Three long years endured his insults, sunk in slavery andshame, 'Till the slumbering fires awakened, bursting into furious flame, And the tyrant fell before thee, whelmed in sudden dark decline, Freedom, Goddess mine !
Is the -lightning quenched for ever that of yore flashed from thine.eyes ?
Elet the star of thy first shining never more again to rise? Faded is thy.wreath of roses, emblem of thy happier days, Halting thy imperial footstep, wild and wildered is thy gaze. We is me ! no more is valiance, nor the grace of beauty thine, Freedom, Goddess mine !
CHARLES L. 0RAVES.
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