TO FRANCE

TO FRANCE

Sweet France, we greet thee with our cheers, our tears,Our tardy swords! O sternly, wanly fairIn that red martyr-aureole thou dost wear!Even for the sake of our bright pioneers,Chapman, and Seeger, and such dear dead peersOf thy dead sons, joyous and swift to dareAll fiery danger of the earth and air,Forgive us, France, our hesitating years!Quenchless as thine own spirit is our trustThat thou shalt spring resurgent, like the bravePure plume of Bayard, from the blood and dustOf this grim combat-to-the-utterance,Fresh as the foambow of the charging wave,O plume of Europe, proud and delicate France!

Sweet France, we greet thee with our cheers, our tears,Our tardy swords! O sternly, wanly fairIn that red martyr-aureole thou dost wear!Even for the sake of our bright pioneers,Chapman, and Seeger, and such dear dead peersOf thy dead sons, joyous and swift to dareAll fiery danger of the earth and air,Forgive us, France, our hesitating years!Quenchless as thine own spirit is our trustThat thou shalt spring resurgent, like the bravePure plume of Bayard, from the blood and dustOf this grim combat-to-the-utterance,Fresh as the foambow of the charging wave,O plume of Europe, proud and delicate France!

Sweet France, we greet thee with our cheers, our tears,Our tardy swords! O sternly, wanly fairIn that red martyr-aureole thou dost wear!Even for the sake of our bright pioneers,Chapman, and Seeger, and such dear dead peersOf thy dead sons, joyous and swift to dareAll fiery danger of the earth and air,Forgive us, France, our hesitating years!

Sweet France, we greet thee with our cheers, our tears,

Our tardy swords! O sternly, wanly fair

In that red martyr-aureole thou dost wear!

Even for the sake of our bright pioneers,

Chapman, and Seeger, and such dear dead peers

Of thy dead sons, joyous and swift to dare

All fiery danger of the earth and air,

Forgive us, France, our hesitating years!

Quenchless as thine own spirit is our trustThat thou shalt spring resurgent, like the bravePure plume of Bayard, from the blood and dustOf this grim combat-to-the-utterance,Fresh as the foambow of the charging wave,O plume of Europe, proud and delicate France!

Quenchless as thine own spirit is our trust

That thou shalt spring resurgent, like the brave

Pure plume of Bayard, from the blood and dust

Of this grim combat-to-the-utterance,

Fresh as the foambow of the charging wave,

O plume of Europe, proud and delicate France!


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