1. ۱1
2. ۲O STAR of France!
3. ۳The brightness of thy hope and strength and fame,
4. ۴Like some proud ship that led the fleet so long,
5. ۵Beseems to-day a wreck, driven by the gale—a mastless hulk;
6. ۶And ’mid its teeming, madden’d, half-drown’d crowds,
7. ۷Nor helm nor helmsman.
8. ۸
9. ۹2
10. ۱۰Dim, smitten star!
11. ۱۱Orb not of France alone—pale symbol of my soul, its dearest hopes,
12. ۱۲The struggle and the daring—rage divine for liberty,
13. ۱۳Of aspirations toward the far ideal—enthusiast’s dreams of brotherhood,
14. ۱۴Of terror to the tyrant and the priest.
15. ۱۵
16. ۱۶3
17. ۱۷Star crucified! by traitors sold!
18. ۱۸Star panting o’er a land of death—heroic land!
19. ۱۹Strange, passionate, mocking, frivolous land.
20. ۲۰
21. ۲۱Miserable! yet for thy errors, vanities, sins, I will not now rebuke thee;
22. ۲۲Thy unexampled woes and pangs have quell’d them all,
23. ۲۳And left thee sacred.
24. ۲۴
25. ۲۵In that amid thy many faults, thou ever aimedest highly,
26. ۲۶In that thou wouldst not really sell thyself, however great the price,
27. ۲۷In that thou surely wakedst weeping from thy drugg’d sleep,
28. ۲۸In that alone, among thy sisters, thou, Giantess, didst rend the ones that shamed thee,
29. ۲۹In that thou couldst not, wouldst not, wear the usual chains,
30. ۳۰This cross, thy livid face, thy pierced hands and feet,
31. ۳۱The spear thrust in thy side.
32. ۳۲
33. ۳۳4
34. ۳۴O star! O ship of France, beat back and baffled long!
35. ۳۵Bear up, O smitten orb! O ship, continue on!
36. ۳۶
37. ۳۷Sure, as the ship of all, the Earth itself,
38. ۳۸Product of deathly fire and turbulent chaos,
39. ۳۹Forth from its spasms of fury and its poisons,
40. ۴۰Issuing at last in perfect power and beauty,
41. ۴۱Onward, beneath the sun, following its course,
42. ۴۲So thee, O ship of France!
43. ۴۳
44. ۴۴Finish’d the days, the clouds dispell’d,
45. ۴۵The travail o’er, the long-sought extrication,
46. ۴۶When lo! reborn, high o’er the European world,
47. ۴۷(In gladness, answering thence, as face afar to face, reflecting ours, Columbia,)
48. ۴۸Again thy star, O France—fair, lustrous star,
49. ۴۹In heavenly peace, clearer, more bright than ever,
50. ۵۰Shall beam immortal.