| Higginson and Bigelow, comps. American Sonnets. 1891. | | | | My Fatherland (I.) | | By William Cranston Lawton (1853–1941) |
| | An Incident of the Retreat of the Ten Thousand |
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THE IMPERIAL boy had fallen in his pride | |
| Before the walls of golden Babylon. | |
| The host who deemed that priceless treasure won | |
| For many a day since then had wandered wide, | |
| By famine thinned, by savage hordes defied. | 5 |
| In a deep vale, beneath the setting sun, | |
| They saw at last a swift black river run, | |
| While shouting spearsmen thronged the farther side. | |
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| Then eagerly, with startled, joyous eyes, | |
| Toward the despondent chief a soldier flew: | 10 |
| “I was a slave in Athens: never knew | |
| My native country: but I understand | |
| The meaning of yon wild barbarian cries, | |
| And I believe this is my fatherland!” | | | |
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