<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="center" class="head">To Russia New and Free</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%"><span class="smallcaps">Land</span> of the Martyrs -- of the martyred dead</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">And martyred living -- now of noble fame!</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Long wert thou saddest of the nations, wed</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">To Sorrow as the fire to the flame.</p><p class="line">Not yet relentless History had writ of Teuton shame.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Thou knewest all the gloom of hope deferred.</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">'Twixt God and Russia wrong had built such bar</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Each by the other could no more be heard.</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">Seen through the cloud, the child's familiar star,</p><p class="line">That once made Heaven near, had made it seem more far.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Land of the Breaking Dawn! No more look back</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">To that long night that nevermore can be:</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">The sunless dungeon and the exile's track.</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">To the world's dreams of terror let it flee.</p><p class="line">To gentle April cruel March is now antiquity.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Yet -- of the Past one sacred relic save:</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">That boundary-post 'twixt Russia and Despair, --</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Set where the dead might look upon his grave, --</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">Kissed by him with his last-breathed Russian air.</p><p class="line">Keep it to witness to the world what heroes still may dare.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Land of New Hope, no more the minor key,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">No more the songs of exile long and lone;</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Thy tears henceforth be tears of memory.</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">Sing, with the joy the joyless would have known</p><p class="line">Who for this visioned happiness so gladly gave their own.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Land of the warm heart and the friendly hand,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">Strike the free chord; no more the muted strings!</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Forever let the equal record stand --</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">A thousand winters for this Spring of Springs,</p><p class="line">That to a warring world, through thee, millennial longing brings.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">On thy white tablets cleansed of royal stain,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">What message to the future mayst thou write! --</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">The People's Law, the bulwark of their reign,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">And vigilant Liberty, of ancient might,</p><p class="line">And Brotherhood, that can alone lead to the loftiest height.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Take, then, our hearts' rejoicing overflow,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">Thou new-born daughter of Democracy,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Whose coming sets the expectant earth aglow.</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">Soon the glad skies thy proud new flag shall see;</p><p class="line">And hear thy chanted hymns of hope for Russia new and free.</p></div><p class="byline">Robert Underwood Johnson</p><p> April, 1917 </p></body></html> · Great War