Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry.
Volume VIII. National Spirit. 1904. | | | | I. Patriotism | | “Breathes there the man?” | | Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832) |
| | From “The Lay of the Last Minstrel,” Canto VI. |
|
BREATHES there the man with soul so dead | |
| Who never to himself hath said, | |
| This is my own, my native land! | |
| Whose heart has ne’er within him burned, | |
| As home his footsteps he hath turned | 5 |
| From wandering on a foreign strand? | |
| If such there breathe, go, mark him well; | |
| For him no minstrel raptures swell; | |
| High though his titles, proud his name, | |
| Boundless his wealth as wish can claim, | 10 |
| Despite those titles, power, and pelf, | |
| The wretch, concentred all in self, | |
| Living, shall forfeit fair renown, | |
| And, doubly dying, shall go down | |
| To the vile dust from whence he sprung, | 15 |
| Unwept, unhonored, and unsung. | | | |
|
|
|
