1. 2. 3. 4. XCIX. WHAT CONSTITUTES A STATE. What constitutes a State? Not high-raised battlement or labored mound, Not cities proud, with spires and turrets crowned; Where, laughing at the storm, rich navies ride; Where low-browed baseness wafts perfume to pride. No! Men,-high-minded men, With power as far above dull brutes endued In forest, brake, or den, As beasts excel cold rocks and brambles rude- But know their rights, and, knowing, dare maintain, And crush the tyrant while they rend the chain : These constitute a State; And sovereign Law, that State's collected will, Sits empress, crowning good, repressing ill. The fiend Dissension like a vapor sinks; And e'en the all-dazzling crown Hides his faint rays, and at her bidding shrinks. Such was this Heaven-loved isle, Than Lesbos fairer and the Cretan shore ! No more shall freedom smile? Shall Britons languish, and be men no more? Since all must life resign, Those sweet rewards which decorate the brave "Tis folly to decline, And steal inglorious to the silent grave. C. HOW SLEEP THE BRAVE. 2. By fairy hands their knell is rung; CI. MARCO BOZZARIS. 1. At midnight, in his guarded tent, In dreams, through camp and court, he bore In dreams, his song of triumph heard ; Then wore the monarch's signet ring; Then pressed that monarch's throne—a king : As wild his thoughts, and gay of wing, As Eden's garden bird. 2. At midnight, in the forest shades, There had the Persian's thousands stood, And now there breathed that haunted air 3. An hour passed on-the Turk awoke : That bright dream was his last; He woke to hear his sentries shriek, "To arms! they come! the Greek! the Greek!" "Strike! till the last armed foe expires; 4. They fought like brave men, long and well; His few surviving comrades saw His smile when rang the proud hurrah, Like flowers at set of sun. 5. Come to the bridal chamber, Death! With banquet-song, and dance, and wine— And thou art terrible !-the tear, The groan, the knell, the pall, the bier, 6. But to the hero, when his sword The thanks of millions yet to be. Bozzaris! with the storied brave We tell thy doom without a sigh ; CII. THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER. 1. Oh say, can you see by the dawn's early light What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleam ing? Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly stream ing? And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air, 2. On that shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep, Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes, What is that which the breeze o'er the towering steep, As it fitfully blows, now conceals, now discloses ? |