ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS 83
Kossufh
A RACE of nobles may die out,
JT\ A royal line may leave no heir;
Wise Nature sets no guards about
Her pewter plate and wood ware.
But they fail not, the kinglier breed,
Who starry diadems attain j
To dungeon, axe, and stake succeed
Heirs of the old heroic strain.
And he, let come what will of woe,
Hath saved the land he strove to save ;
No Cossack hordes, no traitor's blow,
Can quench the voice shall haunt his grave.
I Kossuth am; 0 Future, thou
That clearest the just and blotfst the vile,
O'er this small dust in reverence bow,
Remembering what I was erewhile.
I was the chosen trump wherethrough
Our God sent forth awakening breath;
Came chains ? Came death ? The strain He blew
Sounds on, outliving chains and death.
James Russell Lowell
Plain and Flat
in z fer war I call it murder,
Jti There you hev it plain an' flat;
I don't want to go no furder
Than my testyment fer that;
God hez sed so plump an' fairly,
It's ez long ez it is broad,
An' you've got to git up airly
Ef you want to take in God.
James Russell Lowell
To Brother Robert Burns
TTNEAR Bard and Brother, let who may
L_) Against thy faults be railing,
(Though far, I pray, from us be they
That never had a failing).
One toast I'll give, and that not long,
Which thou wouldst pledge if present,
To him whose song, in nature strong,
Makes man of prince and peasant,
James Russell Lowell at a Burns Centenary