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| THIS was the ruler of the land, | |
| When Athens was the land of fame; | |
| This was the light that led the band, | |
| When each was like a living flame; | |
| The centre of earth’s noblest ring— | 5 |
| Of more than men the more than king! | |
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| Yet not by fetter, nor by spear, | |
| His sovereignty was held or won: | |
| Feared—but alone as freemen fear, | |
| Loved—but as freemen love alone, | 10 |
| He waved the sceptre o’er his kind | |
| By nature’s first great title—mind! | |
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| Resistless words were on his tongue, | |
| Then eloquence first flashed below; | |
| Full armed to life the portent sprung— | 15 |
| Minerva from the Thunderer’s brow! | |
| And his the sole, the sacred hand | |
| That shook her ægis o’er the land. | |
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| And throned immortal by his side, | |
| A woman sits with eye sublime,— | 20 |
| Aspasia, all his spirit’s bride; | |
| But, if their solemn love were crime, | |
| Pity the Beauty and the Sage— | |
| Their crime was in their darkened age. | |
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| He perished, but his wreath was won— | 25 |
| He perished in his height of fame; | |
| Then sunk the cloud on Athens’ sun, | |
| Yet still she conquered in his name. | |
| Filled with his soul, she could not die; | |
| Her conquest was posterity. | 30 |
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