There Is a Goddess Green With Years
There is a goddess green with years
Who stands in freedom's name,
Holds high the torch of Liberty
Above the sea and land.
To claim her promise multitudes
Braved, tempest tossed, the deep.
To tyranny each back was turned,
By hope each face was lit.
Once by a passage through the waves
The Israelites were led
Out from a land of bitter toil
Towards their promised home.
Horatius with blood on brow
Had faced alone the foe,
Then headlong plunged into the deep
And swam the Tiber's flow.
But conquest has its rivers too,
Much suffering brings much power,
For Joshua crossed the Jordan,
Caesar the Rubicon.
This is the law of history,
Shall be as it has been,
But if the root is bitter
Then bitter is the tree.
For if we hate the tyrant
More than his tyranny,
The morrow are our foes our slaves
And the tyrants we.
In history's chains our feet are bound,
My hands are bound to thine.
Should one but suffer perfectly
His kingdom shall not fail.
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