Thou Liberty! celestial light So long conceal'd from Gallic lands, Goddess, in ancient days ador'd By Gallia's conquering bands: Thou Liberty! whom savage kings Have plac'd among forbidden things, Tho' still averse that man be free, Secret, they bow to Liberty-- O, to my accents lend an ear, Blest object of each tyrant's fear, While I to modern days recall The Lyric muse of ancient Gaul.
Ere yet my willing voice obeys The transports of the heart, The goddess to my view displays A temple rear'd in ancient days, Fit subject for the muse's art. Now, round the world I cast my eye, With pain, its ruins I descry: This temple once to Freedom rais'd Thermopylae! in thy fam'd strait-- I see it to the dust debas'd, And servile chains, its fate!
In those fair climes, where freedom reign'd, Two thousand years degrade the Grecian name, I see them still enslav'd, enchain'd; But France from Rome and Athens caught the flame-- A temple now to heaven they raise Where nations bound in ties of peace With olive-boughs shall throng to praise The gallant Gaul, that bade all discord cease.
Before this Pantheon, fair and tall, The piles of darker ages fall, And freemen here no longer trace The monuments of man's disgrace: Before its porch, at Freedom's tree Exalt the Cap of Liberty, The cap[A] that once Helvetia knew (The terror of the tyrant crew) And on our country's altar trace The features of each honour'd face-- The men that strove for equal laws, Or perish'd, martyrs in their cause.
[A] Which owes its origin to William Tell, the famous deliverer of Switzerland.--_Freneau's note._
Ye gallant chiefs, above all praise, Ye Brutuses of ancient days! Tho' fortune long has strove to blast, Your virtues are repaid at last. Your heavenly feasts awhile forbear And deign to make my song your care; My lyre a bolder note attains, And rivals old Tyrtoeus' strains; The ambient air returns the sound, And kindles rapture all around.
With thee begins the lofty theme, Eternal Nature--power supreme, Who planted Freedom in the mind, The first great right of all mankind: Too long presumptuous folly dar'd To veil our race from thy regard; Tyrants on ignorance form'd their plan, And made their crimes, the crimes of man, Let victory but befriend our cause And reason deign to dictate laws; And once mankind their rights reclaim And honour pay to thy great name.--