Ode to his Majesty, Frederick William the Fourth, King of Prussia
TO HIS MAJESTY, FREDERICK WILLIAM THE FOURTH, KING OF PRUSSIA .
1.
Welcome to England, to the happy Isle,
Brave Prince of gallant people! Welcome Thou,
In adverse as in prosperous fortunes tried,
Frederick, the well-beloved!
Greatest and best of that illustrious name,
Welcome to these free shores!
In glory art thou come,
Thy victory perfect, thy revenge complete.
2.
Enough of sorrow hast thou known,
Enough of evil hath thy realm endured,
Oppress'd, but not debased,
When thine indignant soul,
Long suffering, bore its weight of heaviest woe.
But still, through that dark day,
Unsullied honor was thy counsellor;
And Hope, that had its trust in Heaven,
And in the heart of man
Its strength, forsook thee not.
Thou hadst thy faithful people's love,
The sympathy of noble minds;
And wistfully, as one
Who through the weary night has long'd for day,
Looks eastward for the dawn,
So Germany to thee
Turn'd in her bondage her imploring eyes.
3.
Oh, grief of griefs, that Germany,
The wise, the virtuous land,
The land of mighty minds,
Should bend beneath the frothy Frenchman's yoke;
Oh, grief of griefs, to think
That she should groan in bonds,
She who had blest all nations with her gifts!
There had the light of Reformation risen,
The light of Knowledge there was burning clear,
Oh, grief, that her unhappy sons
Should toil, and bleed, and die,
To quench that sacred light,
The wretched agents of a tyrant's will!
How often hath their blood
In his accursed cause
Reek'd on the Spaniard's blade!
Their mangled bodies fed
The wolves and eagles of the Pyrenees;
Or stiffening in the snows of Moscovy,
Amid the ashes of the watch-fire lay,
Where dragging painfully their frozen limbs,
With life's last effort, in the flames they fell.
4.
Long, Frederick, did'st thou bear
Her sorrows and thine own;
Seven miserable years
In patience didst thou feed thy heart with hope;
Till, when the arm of God
Smote the blaspheming Tyrant in his pride,
And Alexander, with the voice of power,
Raised the glad cry, Deliverance for Mankind,
First of the Germans, Prussia broke her chains.
5.
Joy, joy for Germany,
For Europe, for the World,
When Prussia rose in arms!
Oh, what a spectacle
For present and for future times was there,
When, for the public need,
Wives gave their marriage rings,
And mothers, when their sons
The Band of Vengeance join'd,
Bade them return victorious from the field,
Or with their country fall.
6.
Twice o'er the field of death
The trembling scales of Fate hung equipoised;
For France, obsequious to her Tyrant still,
Mighty for evil, put forth all her power;
And still, beneath his hateful banners driven,
Against their father-land,
Unwilling Germans bore unnatural arms.
What though the Boaster made his temples ring
With vain thanksgivings for each doubtful day—
What though, with false pretence of peace,
His old insidious arts he tried,—
The spell was broken! Austria threw her sword
Into the inclining scale,
And Leipsic saw the wrongs
Of Germany avenged.
7.
Ne'er till that awful time had Europe seen
Such multitudes in arms;
Nor ever had the rising Sun beheld
Such mighty interests of mankind at stake;
Nor o'er so wide a scene
Of slaughter e'er had Night her curtain closed.
There, on the battle-field,
With one accord the grateful monarchs knelt,
And raised their voice to Heaven;
“The cause was thine, O Lord!
“O Lord! thy hand was here!”
What Conquerors e'er deserved
So proud, so pure a joy!
It was a moment when the exalted soul
Might almost wish to burst its mortal bounds,
Lest all of life to come
Vapid and void should seem
After that high-wrought hour.
8.
But thou hadst yet more toils,
More duties and more triumphs yet in store.
Elbe must not bound thine arms,
Nor on the banks of Rhine
Thine eagles check their flight;
When o'er that barrier stream
Awakened Germany
Drove her invaders with such rout and wreck
As overtook the impious Gaul of old,
Laden with plunder, and from Delphi driven.
9.
Long had insulting France
Boasted her arms invincible,
Her soil inviolate;
At length the hour of retribution comes!
Avenging nations on all sides move on;
In Gascony the flag of England flies,
Triumphant, as of yore,
When sable Edward led his peerless host
Behold the Spaniard and the Portugal
For cities burnt, for violated fanes,
For murders, massacres,
All monstrous, all unutterable crimes,
Demanding vengeance with victorious cries,
Pour from the Pyrenees.
The Russian comes, his eye on Paris fix'd,
The flames of Moscow present to his heart,
The Austrian to efface
Ulm, Austerlitz, and Wagram's later shame;
Rejoicing Germany,
With all her nations, swells the avenging train,
And in the field and in the triumph first,
Thy banner, Frederick, floats.
10.
Six weeks in daily strife
The veteran Blucher bore the brunt of war.
Glorious old man,
The last and greatest of his master's school,
Long may he live to hear
The people bless his name!
Late be it ere the wreath
That crowns his silver hair
Adorn his monument!
Glorious old man,
How oft hath he discomfited
The boasted chiefs of France,
And foil'd her vaunting Tyrant's desperate rage
Glorious old man,
Who, from Silesia's fields,
O'er Elbe, and Rhine, and Seine,
From victory to victory marching on,
Made his heroic way; till at the gates
Of Paris, open'd by his arms, he saw
His King triumphant stand.
11.
Bear back the sword of Frederick now!
The sword which France amid her spoils display
Proud trophy of a day ignobly won.
With laurels wreath the sword;
Bear it in triumph back,
Thus gloriously regain'd;
And when thou lay'st it in its honor'd place,
O Frederick, well-beloved,
Greatest and best of that illustrious name,
Lay by its side thine own,
A holier relic there!
12.
Frederick, the well-beloved!
Welcome to these free shores;
To England welcome, to the happy Isle!
In glory art thou come,
Thy victory perfect, thy revenge complete.
1.
Welcome to England, to the happy Isle,
Brave Prince of gallant people! Welcome Thou,
In adverse as in prosperous fortunes tried,
Frederick, the well-beloved!
Greatest and best of that illustrious name,
Welcome to these free shores!
In glory art thou come,
Thy victory perfect, thy revenge complete.
2.
Enough of sorrow hast thou known,
Enough of evil hath thy realm endured,
Oppress'd, but not debased,
When thine indignant soul,
Long suffering, bore its weight of heaviest woe.
But still, through that dark day,
Unsullied honor was thy counsellor;
And Hope, that had its trust in Heaven,
And in the heart of man
Its strength, forsook thee not.
Thou hadst thy faithful people's love,
The sympathy of noble minds;
And wistfully, as one
Who through the weary night has long'd for day,
Looks eastward for the dawn,
So Germany to thee
Turn'd in her bondage her imploring eyes.
3.
Oh, grief of griefs, that Germany,
The wise, the virtuous land,
The land of mighty minds,
Should bend beneath the frothy Frenchman's yoke;
Oh, grief of griefs, to think
That she should groan in bonds,
She who had blest all nations with her gifts!
There had the light of Reformation risen,
The light of Knowledge there was burning clear,
Oh, grief, that her unhappy sons
Should toil, and bleed, and die,
To quench that sacred light,
The wretched agents of a tyrant's will!
How often hath their blood
In his accursed cause
Reek'd on the Spaniard's blade!
Their mangled bodies fed
The wolves and eagles of the Pyrenees;
Or stiffening in the snows of Moscovy,
Amid the ashes of the watch-fire lay,
Where dragging painfully their frozen limbs,
With life's last effort, in the flames they fell.
4.
Long, Frederick, did'st thou bear
Her sorrows and thine own;
Seven miserable years
In patience didst thou feed thy heart with hope;
Till, when the arm of God
Smote the blaspheming Tyrant in his pride,
And Alexander, with the voice of power,
Raised the glad cry, Deliverance for Mankind,
First of the Germans, Prussia broke her chains.
5.
Joy, joy for Germany,
For Europe, for the World,
When Prussia rose in arms!
Oh, what a spectacle
For present and for future times was there,
When, for the public need,
Wives gave their marriage rings,
And mothers, when their sons
The Band of Vengeance join'd,
Bade them return victorious from the field,
Or with their country fall.
6.
Twice o'er the field of death
The trembling scales of Fate hung equipoised;
For France, obsequious to her Tyrant still,
Mighty for evil, put forth all her power;
And still, beneath his hateful banners driven,
Against their father-land,
Unwilling Germans bore unnatural arms.
What though the Boaster made his temples ring
With vain thanksgivings for each doubtful day—
What though, with false pretence of peace,
His old insidious arts he tried,—
The spell was broken! Austria threw her sword
Into the inclining scale,
And Leipsic saw the wrongs
Of Germany avenged.
7.
Ne'er till that awful time had Europe seen
Such multitudes in arms;
Nor ever had the rising Sun beheld
Such mighty interests of mankind at stake;
Nor o'er so wide a scene
Of slaughter e'er had Night her curtain closed.
There, on the battle-field,
With one accord the grateful monarchs knelt,
And raised their voice to Heaven;
“The cause was thine, O Lord!
“O Lord! thy hand was here!”
What Conquerors e'er deserved
So proud, so pure a joy!
It was a moment when the exalted soul
Might almost wish to burst its mortal bounds,
Lest all of life to come
Vapid and void should seem
After that high-wrought hour.
8.
But thou hadst yet more toils,
More duties and more triumphs yet in store.
Elbe must not bound thine arms,
Nor on the banks of Rhine
Thine eagles check their flight;
When o'er that barrier stream
Awakened Germany
Drove her invaders with such rout and wreck
As overtook the impious Gaul of old,
Laden with plunder, and from Delphi driven.
9.
Long had insulting France
Boasted her arms invincible,
Her soil inviolate;
At length the hour of retribution comes!
Avenging nations on all sides move on;
In Gascony the flag of England flies,
Triumphant, as of yore,
When sable Edward led his peerless host
Behold the Spaniard and the Portugal
For cities burnt, for violated fanes,
For murders, massacres,
All monstrous, all unutterable crimes,
Demanding vengeance with victorious cries,
Pour from the Pyrenees.
The Russian comes, his eye on Paris fix'd,
The flames of Moscow present to his heart,
The Austrian to efface
Ulm, Austerlitz, and Wagram's later shame;
Rejoicing Germany,
With all her nations, swells the avenging train,
And in the field and in the triumph first,
Thy banner, Frederick, floats.
10.
Six weeks in daily strife
The veteran Blucher bore the brunt of war.
Glorious old man,
The last and greatest of his master's school,
Long may he live to hear
The people bless his name!
Late be it ere the wreath
That crowns his silver hair
Adorn his monument!
Glorious old man,
How oft hath he discomfited
The boasted chiefs of France,
And foil'd her vaunting Tyrant's desperate rage
Glorious old man,
Who, from Silesia's fields,
O'er Elbe, and Rhine, and Seine,
From victory to victory marching on,
Made his heroic way; till at the gates
Of Paris, open'd by his arms, he saw
His King triumphant stand.
11.
Bear back the sword of Frederick now!
The sword which France amid her spoils display
Proud trophy of a day ignobly won.
With laurels wreath the sword;
Bear it in triumph back,
Thus gloriously regain'd;
And when thou lay'st it in its honor'd place,
O Frederick, well-beloved,
Greatest and best of that illustrious name,
Lay by its side thine own,
A holier relic there!
12.
Frederick, the well-beloved!
Welcome to these free shores;
To England welcome, to the happy Isle!
In glory art thou come,
Thy victory perfect, thy revenge complete.
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