John Todhunter

Here you will find the Poem The Marseillaise of poet John Todhunter

The Marseillaise

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