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FAMOUS SONGS |
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Like beasts of burden would they load us, Like gods would bid their slaves adore : But man is man, and who is more ? Then, shall they longer lash and goad us ?
IV " O, Liberty ! can man resign thee I Once having felt thy gen'rous flame? Can dungeon, bolts, and bars confine thee, Or whips thy noble spirit tame ? Too long the world has wept, bewailing That falsehood's dagger tyrants wield : But fieedom is our sword and shield, And all then arts are unavailing."
No wonder such a lyric as this, with the oft-repeated chorus, should have stirred the people to action! Lamartine exclaimed of " La Mar-seillaise :" " It received, from the circumstances amid which it arose, an especial character, that renders it at once solemn and sinister; glory and crime, victory and death, are mingled in its strains." And Heine wrote of it in 1830: "A strong joy seizes me, as I sit writing! music resounds under my window, and in the elegiac rage of its large melody I recognize that hymn with which the handsome Barba-roux and his companions once greeted the city of Paris. What a song! It thrills me with fiery delight, it kindles within me the glowing star of enthusiasm and the swift rocket of
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