Page:Maryland, my Maryland, and other poems - Randall - 1908.pdf/123

 In every breast responsive echoes breathe, The ravished senses twine a deathless wreath For those who fought for Freedom, scorning shame, Then bartered life for an eternal fame! Thus, not in vain, he courts the willing ear— Calls on the dead, and living forms appear; Both gods and men in awful grandeur move— The “Blind old Bard”—the “Cloud-compelling Jove!” He bids them tell of days when Greece was free, When Athens rode triumphant o’er the sea, Athens the peerless—prescient—the blind— Athens the mutable—the undefined! The fount of Eloquence! whose spring inspired Her godlike son, and with his breath expired; Which in one warning yet majestic cry Made Philip quail and cowards gladly die! When Sparta stalked the Lioness of the shore With iron nerves—brute heart—what, nothing more? Ay! ay! a single boon kind Nature gave, Alone to drag her from Oblivion’s grave; One hoary rock, the Keystone of the plain— A shivered altar but a hallowed fane, For patriot’s blood has trickled round the stone— Dread august sacrifice! this—this alone