What means this mighty chant, wherein its wail <br />Of some intolerable woe, grown strong <br />With sense of more intolerable wrong <br />Swells to a stern victorious march--a gale <br />Of vengeful wrath? What mean the faces pale, <br />The fierce resolve, the ecstatic pangs along <br />Life's fiery ways, the demon thoughts which throng <br />The gates of awe, when these wild notes assail <br />The sleeping of our souls ? Hear ye no more <br />Than the mad foam of revolution's leaven, <br />Than a roused people's throne-o'erwhelming tread? <br />Hark! 'tis man's spirit thundering on the shore <br />Of iron fate; the tramp of Titans dread, <br />Sworn to dethrone the Gods unjust from Heaven.<br /><br />John Todhunter<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-marseillaise/
