Speak the Feeling

Come, the wind may never again
Blow as now it blows for us;
And the stars may never again shine as now they shine;
Long before October returns,
Sea of blood will have parted us;
And you must crush the love in your heart, and I the love in mine!

For face to face will our kindred stand,
And as they are so shall we be;
Forgetting how the same sweet earth has borne and nourished all -
One must fight for the people's power,
And one for the rights of Royalty;
And each be ready to give his life to work the other's fall.

The chance of war we cannot shun,
Nor would we shrink from our fathers' cause,
Nor dread Death more because the hand that gives it may be dear;
We must bear to see Ambition rule
Over Love, with his iron law;
Must yield our blood for a stranger's sake, and refuse ourselves a tear!

So, the wind may never again
Blow as now it blows for us;
And the stars may never again shine as now they shine;
Next October, the cannon's roar
From hostile ranks may be urging us --
Me to strike for your life's blood, and you to strike for mine.

Alone I sat; the summer day
Had died in smiling light away;
I saw it die, I watched it fade
From the misty hill and breezeless glade.

And thoughts in my soul were rushing,
And my heart bowed beneath their power;
And tears within my eyes were gushing
Because I could not speak the feeling,
The solemn joy around me stealing,
In that divine, untroubled hour.

I asked myself, O why has Heaven
Denied the precious gift to me,
The glorious gift to many given,
To speak their thoughts in poetry?

Dreams have encircled me, I said,
From careless childhood's sunny time;
Visions by ardent fancy fed
Since life was in its morning prime.

But now, when I had hoped to sing,
My fingers strike a tuneless string;
And still the burden of the strain—
I strive no more, 'tis all in vain.

Riches I hold in light esteem,
  And Love I laugh to scorn;
And lust of fame was but a dream
  That vanish'd with the morn;

And if I pray, the only prayer
  That moves my lips for me
Is, "Leave the heart that now I bear,
  And give me liberty!"

Yes, as my swift days near their goal,
  'T is all that I implore:
In life and death a chainless soul,
  With courage to endure.