The Eighth Hungarian Tribe, 1982 (9. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1982-08-01 / 8. szám
August, 1982 THE EIGHTH HUNGARIAN TRIBE 13 KOSSUTH BY EDWARD D. HOWARD Kossuth! Magyar! there was a time These words to me were strange and new— When in my heart no bounding throb Like liquid fire came rushing through, As pen or tongue, for praise or blame, Proclaimed a foreign stranger’s name. There was a time when fire that burns With life eternal in my soul, Constant and deathless as the stars Through Night’s blue solitudes that roll, No brighter gleam of light betrayed, Whom from afar those accents strayed. But now, as free winds fan the flame Of watch-fires in the quiet night— As clouds electric, meeting, throw Their instant blaze of kindred light— So rouse those words, with swift control, The fires of Freedom in my soul! Thoughts of heroic deeds gone by, And godlike victory to come— Deep longings for the pure and high, Now eloquent, which once were dumb— Come gushing o’er me with the word Before so heedlessly I heard. Kossuth! my heart leaps at thy name, As if its blood were kin to thee; And kindred I am proud to claim— The kindred love of Liberty; A high and hold tie that blinds In deathless love, fraternal minds. Oh, hero-soldier! not in vain Thy native soil with blood is wet! Though tyrants triumph for a time, The sun of Freedom is not set; The clouds that gather round the dawn. Herald its march of glory on! Thy fellow-soldiers sleep in death. Or, exiled strangers, roam afar; The tyrant and the traitor reign, Where trampled homes and altars are; The widow’s and the orphan’s cry From Hungary ascend on high. Enough for sorrow and regret: Enough for agony and tears! And yet—enough for Hope and Trust, And Victory in coming years; Enough to rouse the true and brave, Wherever Freedom’s banners wave! Heroic deeds, and noble death; Defeat that fills the World with gloom— Oh, craven despots! know ye not Such triumph brings unerring doom? Aye! know ye not, o’er all the Earth, Such wrongs give Truth and Freedom birth? Go! bind your chains on Austrian slaves! Lo! Freedom thunders at Marseilles !• New aspirations rise in France, Mid Scotia’s hills and England’s vales, And burning tides of feeling sweep To us from o’er the rolling deep. Let base betrayers of the free Go fatten on the spoils of crime; Be mine, Kossuth, to strive with thee, And bind my brother’s heart to thine Prouder with thee to suffer wrong, Than share the victory with the strong. With good and brave Kosciusko’s** name— With Bruce, and Washington, and Tell, Brave old De Kalb, and Lafayette, And Warren in the fight that fell, Thy name shall ever honored be, High in the annals of the free! A welcome from each manly heart, A cheer from every freeman’s breast, A cordial, warm, fraternal grasp, Shall greet thee as our honored guest; Nor Russian threats, nor Austrian gold, Our words of sympathy withhold Onoell, December, 1851. •Referring to Kossuth’s reception at Marseilles. •* Pronounced Kosshusko. National Era. Vol. 6, February 12, 1852. LOUIS KOSSUTH “THE NATION’S GUEST” Bibliography of Kossuth’s visit to U.S.A: Joseph Széplaki — $5.00 plus 75 cents postage Bethlen Press, Inc., P.O. Box 637, Ligonier, Pa. 15658 Phone: 412—238-9244
