Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Oceanica: Vol. XXXI. 1876–79. | | | | Various Islands: Malta | | The Knights of St. John | | Friedrich von Schiller (1759–1805) |
| | Translated by Edward, Lord Lytton
OH, nobly shone the fearful cross upon your mail afar, | |
| When Rhodes and Acre hailed your might, O lions of the war! | |
| When leading many a pilgrim horde, through wastes of Syrian gloom; | |
| Or standing with the cherub’s sword before the Holy Tomb. | |
| Yet on your forms the apron seemed a nobler armor far, | 5 |
| When by the sick man’s bed ye stood, O lions of the war! | |
| When ye, the high-born, bowed your pride to tend the lowly weakness, | |
| The duty, though it brought no fame, fulfilled by Christian meekness,— | |
| Religion of the cross, thou blend’st, as in a single flower, | |
| The twofold branches of the palm,—humility and power. | 10 | | | |
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