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LINES

From the German of KOeRNER.

Written on the morning of the Battle of Daenneberg.

    Doubt-beladen, dim and hoary,
      O’er us breaks the mighty day,
    And the sunbeam, cold and gory,
      Lights us on our fearful way. 
    In the womb of coming hours,
      Destinies of empires lie,
    Now the scale ascends, now lowers,
      Now is thrown the noble die. 
  Brothers, the hour with warning is rife;
  Faithful in death as you’re faithful in life,
    Be firm, and be bound by the holiest tie,

    In the shadows of the night,
      Lie behind us shame and scorn;
    Lies the slave’s exulting might,
      Who the German oak has torn. 
    Speech disgrac’d in future story,
      Shrines polluted (shall it be?)
    To dishonour pledg’d our glory,
      German brothers, set it free. 
  Brothers, your hands, let your vengeance be burning,
  By your actions, the curses of heaven be turning,
    On, on, set your country’s Palladium free.

    Hope, the brightest, is before us,
      And the future’s golden time,
    Joys, which heaven will restore us,
      Freedom’s holiness sublime. 
    German bards and artists’ powers,
      Woman’s truth, and fond caress,
    Fame eternal shall be ours,
      Beauty’s smile our toils shall bless. 
  Yet ’tis a deed that the bravest might shake,
  Life and our heart’s blood are set on the stake;
    Death alone points out the road to success.

    God! united we will dare it;
      Firm this heart shall meet its fate,
    To the altar thus I bear it,
      And my coming doom await. 
    Fatherland, for thee we perish,
      At thy fell command ’tis done,
    May our loved ones ever cherish
      Freedom, which our blood has won. 
  Liberty, grow o’er each oak-shadow’d plain,
  Grow o’er the tombs of thy warriors slain,
    Fatherland, hear thou the oath we have sworn.

    Brothers, towards your hearts’ best treasures,
      Cast one look, on earth the last,
    Turn then from those once prized pleasures,
      Wither’d by the hostile blast. 
    Though your eyes be dim with weeping,
      Tears like these are not from fear,
    Trust to God’s own holy keeping,
      With your last kiss, all that’s dear. 
  All lips that pray for us, all hearts that we rend
  With parting, O father, to thee we commend,
    Protect them and shield them from wrongs and despair.—­H.

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EQUANIMITY OF TEMPER.