The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1871-06-29

4
Peerless in thy beauty, matchless in thy grace!
How art thou desolate in thy widowhood
How hast thou fallen from thy s'pride of place!'
How shall the coming years the marks efface,
Left in the track Of stern, relentless war !.
Dcep-yawl.ing burrows, plowcd in the bright face
OF thy bright land as late with dreadfuljar,
Shaking alterations, passed, like Fate, hispon
dcrous ear!- e7eHH
Over thy sons Wars Juggernaut hath rolled,
And left thee frenziea in thy grief and shame.
Where was the prestige of thy past Unfold
The record and we find glorious name
Inscribed thereon in characters of flame
Thou, Europe's mistress once, before whose glance
Her nations trembed. Thy proud spirit tame
Seems grown at last! The majesty of France,
Hurled to the earth, lies low, beneath the Ger
man lance v
And He. the wonder of our Modern Age
Third of Earth $ comprehensive mighty King
Of Battles! Monarch grandl and Statesman sage!
Where slept thy thunders ?-where the clarion ring
Ofthy proud roice ?-the power with which fling
Thy foes unto destruction? Thou alone
First of Earths warriors. for thy France could
bring
Victory from such defeat, when she lay prone
Hepless-her Emperor lost-her Monarch, and
her Throne!
Thou, sleeping silent on the banks of Seine,
Amidst the people thou ladst loved SO we'll
Could but one hour of thee have come to reign,
Upon her foes, confusion, and to tell
The story of o'ermastering Genius We'll
For her strong conquerers that in the grave
The Arbitcr Of Conquest sleeps! Their knel
Had else, long since, been rung, in time to save
France and her sons from shame, that whelm
them like wave.
And yet her fate she tempted Destiny
Proclaimed at last against her hayward child
She is her own destroyer THUS we see,
(Foeman retiring, her madness wild
Turns gnashingly to rend herself Woes piled
On woes for thee, sad land land for thee meier
Worst fate could drest hate desire! Exiled
From reason and from judgment, thou must bea
Thy self inflicted pangs in anguish and despair
Thou vert a slave of Glory-fatal word
TO which thou owed'st thy greatness decline
And, at her bidding thou the unsparng sword
Drew shoutngy and toward the peaceful Rhine
Marched thy proud columns Man may not-ccm
bine
Even numbers against Fate! IT'S thus see
France crushed-he victim of hcrself!- Condig
The punishment of Heaven, that, frowningly
Thrust back the maddened hordes of Self-Idol
airy!
nobler wachword, France, the .rman tongu
Pronounces unto Earth, before which thine
Sinks into insgnifcance Loud sung,
With their wild fervor, from their watch th
Rhine,
ssGod and our Fatherland.'' That sound in lin
Rallied the serted ranks, and still shall be
Their inspiration, holy and benign.
Celery and France pales, Intellectually,
Before thy rising star, United Germany.
And, in this strength, an earnest nation stood,
To conquer Freedom and noble name;
Writing her history in her own hearts blood,
And washing out the record of her shame
And with her, Freemen everywhere exclaim
<sGod and our Fatherland :" Thus Germans ye
Uttering battle cry to stir the flame
Of patriot hearts, have left posterity
This atchword-Freedom's call Proud sony
Of liberty?
Yet from the wreck Of thy Dead Past arise
With new hope, thou torn and bleeding land!
And from the inspiration of the skies
Renew thy trength--regain thy self command
True to thyself as to thy God still stand,
Henceforward, only where the Right shall be
Thy guide! Then Justice shall go hand in hant
With Inv ND I'll hall