STROPHE 5

By Algernon Charles Swinburne

O torn out of thy trance,

O deathless, O my France,

O many-wounded mother, O redeemed to reign!

O rarely sweet and bitter

The bright brief tears that glitter

On thine unclosing eyelids, proud of their own pain;

The beautiful brief tears

That wash the stains of years

White as the names immortal of thy chosen and slain.

O loved so much so long,

O smitten with such wrong,

O purged at last and perfect without spot or stain,

Light of the light of man,

Reborn republican,

At last, O first Republic, hailed in heaven again!

Out of the obscene eclipse

Rerisen, with burning lips

To witness for us if we looked for thee in vain.