Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Oceanica: Vol. XXXI. 1876–79.
The Knights of St. John
By Friedrich von Schiller (1759–1805)Translated by Edward, Lord Lytton
O
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,
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.