The quality of these trees, green height; of the sky, shining, of <br />water, a clear flow; of the rock, hardness <br />And reticence: each is noble in its quality. The love of freedom <br />has been the quality of Western man. <br /> <br />There is a stubborn torch that flames from Marathon to Concord, <br />its dangerous beauty binding three ages <br />Into one time; the waves of barbarism and civilization have <br />eclipsed but have never quenched it. <br /> <br />For the Greeks the love of beauty, for Rome of ruling; for the <br />present age the passionate love of discovery; <br />But in one noble passion we are one; and Washington, Luther, <br />Tacitus, Aeschylus, one kind of man. <br /> <br />And you, America, that passion made you. You were not born <br />to prosperity, you were born to love freedom. <br />You did not say 'en masse,' you said 'independence.' But we <br />cannot have all the luxuries and freedom also. <br /> <br />Freedom is poor and laborious; that torch is not safe but hungry, <br />and often requires blood for its fuel. <br />You will tame it against it burn too clearly, you will hood it <br />like a kept hawk, you will perch it on the wrist of Caesar. <br /> <br />But keep the tradition, conserve the forms, the observances, keep <br />the spot sore. Be great, carve deep your heel-marks. <br />The states of the next age will no doubt remember you, and edge <br />their love of freedom with contempt of luxury.<br /><br />Robinson Jeffers<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/shine-republic/
