Anarchy

O, Liberty! Enthroned in human right,
     What outrages are wrought in thy fair name;
When keen-eyed fury breaks in secret might
Through gulf of yawning chaos into flame.
When harbingers of death—like Phrygia’s flood
     Upon the shore where Niobe was changed—
Beat on the rock where thou has’t oft withstood
     The sable-mantled ghouls against thee ranged.

When anarchy’s malign and poisoned sting,
     Like Erynnis’ destructive venom spread,
More feared than war or pestilence, will ring
     A nation’s lamentation for its dead.
The wasted freedom curdles in they veins,
     Through dastard stroke of one who claimed thy pale,
And all thy fruit of time in galling chains
     To mark severe the humbler human scale.