| |
| AGAIN, sweet bells of the Russias, | |
| Your voice on the March air fling! | |
| Ring, bells, on the Volga and Dwina, | |
| Ring, bells, on the Caspian, ring! | |
| O Tzar of the North, Alexander, | 5 |
| Thy justice to those that were least | |
| Now girds thee with strength of the victor, | |
| And makes thee the lord of the East! | |
| |
| It was midnight on the Finland, | |
| And, o’er the wastes of snow, | 10 |
| From the crystal sky of winter | |
| The lamps of God hung low. | |
| A sea of ice was the Neva, | |
| In the white light of the stars, | |
| And it locked its arms in silence | 15 |
| Round the city of the Tzars. | |
| |
| The palace was mantled in shadow, | |
| And, dark in the starlit space, | |
| The monolith rose before it | |
| From its battle-trophied base. | 20 |
| And the cross that crowned the column | |
| Seemed reaching to the stars, | |
| O’er the white streets, wrapped in silence, | |
| Round the palace of the Tzars. | |
| |
| The chapel’s mullioned windows | 25 |
| Are flushed with a sullen light; | |
| Who comes to the sacred altar | |
| In the silence of the night? | |
| What prince with a deep heart-burden | |
| Approaches the altar’s stair, | 30 |
| To take the wine and the wafer, | |
| And bow for the help of prayer? | |
| |
| ’T is the Tzar, whose word in the morning | |
| Shall make the Russias free | |
| From the Neva to the Ural, | 35 |
| From the Steppe to the winter sea; | |
| Who speaks, and a thousand steeples | |
| Ring freedom to every man,— | |
| From the serf on the white Ladoga | |
| To the fisher of Astrakhan. | 40 |
| |
| O, faith in Eternal Power! | |
| O, faith in Eternal Love! | |
| O, faith that looked up to heaven | |
| The promise of ages to prove! | |
| The cross and the crown gleam above him; | 45 |
| He raises his brow from prayer, | |
| The cross of humanity’s martyr | |
| Or crown of the hero to wear. | |
| |
| Slept the serf on the Neva and Volga, | |
| Slept the fisher of Astrakhan, | 50 |
| Nor dreamed that the bells of the morning | |
| Would ring in his rights as a man. | |
| He saw not night’s crystal gates open | |
| To hosts singing carols on high, | |
| He knew not a Bethlehem glory | 55 |
| Would break with the morn in the sky! | |
| |
| The morn set its jewels of rubies | |
| In the snows of the turret and spire, | |
| And shone the far sea of the Finland | |
| A sea of glass mingled with fire. | 60 |
| The Old Guard encircled the palace | |
| With questioning look on each cheek, | |
| And waited the word that the ukase | |
| To the zone-girded empire should speak. | |
| |
| The voice of the Russias has spoken; | 65 |
| Each serf in the Russias is free! | |
| Ring, bells, on the Neva and Volga, | |
| Ring, bells, on the Caspian Sea! | |
| O Tzar of the North, Alexander, | |
| Thy justice to those that were least | 70 |
| Shall gird thee with strength of the victor, | |
| Shall make thee the lord of the East. | |
| |
| Again, sweet bells of the Russias, | |
| Your voice on the March air fling! | |
| Ring, bells, on the Volga and Dwina, | 75 |
| Ring, bells, on the Caspian, ring! | |
| Thy triumphs of peace, Alexander, | |
| Outshine all thy triumphs of war, | |
| And thou at God’s altar wert grander | |
| Than throned as the conquering Tzar! | 80 |
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