“O Heaven, he cried, my bleeding country save;
Is there no hand on high to shield the brave?”—
—Campbell
Speak not thus in tones of gladness,
For my soul is steeped in sadness;
Mournful visions haunt my mind—
The wronged, the wrongers of mankind.
Bleeding, bound, and ghastly rise,
The crushed, the wronged, before mine eyes;
The wronger comes, with murderous brand,
Bondsman’s chain, and felon hand.
Ah! my spirit burns and bleeds
For thee, O Poland! Ruthless deeds
Of brutal violence, barbarous wrong—
Themes for Campbell’s deathless song—
Thou hast borne for sleepless years,
Dyed in blood and steeped in tears.
Now from charnel vault ascending,
From thy form the cerements rending,
From thy limbs the despot’s chain—
Righteous Heaven, is this in vain?
When the crown’d unholy alliance
Met for cold ambitious dalliance—
Claims and pleas of right rejecting,
Poland’s mangled form dissecting—
A limb was carved for Prussian brother,
Austria coolly grasped another,
While the Russian Bear kept growling
O’er the trunk, his war-wolves howling
In the rear, gaunt, fierce, audacious.
Britain’s sympathies were spacious,
But she would do nothing more;
So she signed and sealed and swore.
Still believing she is bound
By that deed of wrong profound,
Still the wronger she will cherish,
Though a noble people perish,
And their country’s soil be sodden
With her children’s blood down-trodden.
Again will Britain sympathise—
Tears will rain from ladies’ eyes
At recital of her wrongs;
Concerts, balls, bazaars, and songs,
Without end, to aid the Poles;
The sympathising current rolls
Strong and deep. ‘Tis ever thus
We aid the Poles. With brother Russ
A feeble diplomacy dallies,
Being of the Holy Allies.
Oh! unjust, unwise, and cruel,
Thus to cast such precious jewel
Down before the northern boar—
His horrid tusks, for evermore
Shall they gnash, and grind, and rend?
God of right, the right defend!
(Janet Hamilton)
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