Page:Bohemian legends and other poems.djvu/19



Bohemia! land of far renown,
 * Well known in the days of old,

From out thy villages and towns
 * Came forth thy stalwart sons and bold,

To fight for freedom, and for God,
 * Not caring if they bled or died,

If they won liberty to laud
 * God on their native mountain side.

Bohemia! that so many years
 * Sent out the learned of the earth;

Bohemia, that with many tears
 * Passed through the Scripture’s second birth;

Thy children, now in history’s page,
 * Read thy loved name, with beating heart.

In vain thy enemies they rage,
 * They cannot dim thy glorious part.

Bohemia! from thy mountains wild,
 * God called His martyrs for the truth,

Fiery Jerome and Huss the mild,
 * Here wandered in their days of youth.

Here Žižka, with undaunted face,
 * Though old and blind, thy warrior son,

Left traces one cannot efface
 * Until with history one is done.

Bohemia! there is not an art
 * In which thy sons have not excelled;

Thy wares were sold in every mart,
 * And praise from enemies compelled.