My country! In thy days of glory past <br />A beauteous halo circled round thy brow <br />and worshipped as a deity thou wast— <br />Where is thy glory, where the reverence now? <br />Thy eagle pinion is chained down at last, <br />And grovelling in the lowly dust art thou, <br />Thy minstrel hath no wreath to weave for thee <br />Save the sad story of thy misery! <br />Well—let me dive into the depths of time <br />And bring from out the ages, that have rolled <br />A few small fragments of these wrecks sublime <br />Which human eye may never more behold <br />And let the guerdon of my labour be, <br />My fallen country! One kind wish for thee!<br /><br />Henry Louis Vivian Derozio<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/to-my-native-land/
