Charles Mackay

Song to the Germans

When your rights are destroyed, and when freedom expires,
When your kings and your princes to crush ye combine,
O! shall it be said that no vengeance inspires
The land of the Oder, the Elbe, and the Rhine!
O! shall it be said that the Germans lay still,
While their puny oppressors were working their will?

Forbid it, O Heaven, that the country of song,
The land of the steadfast, the noble, the fair,
Should tamely submit to the lash and the thong,
Or crouch to the rule which her despots prepare.
No! Freedom shall shine o'er the universe yet,
For a sun hath arisen which never shall set.

Then arouse and combine, as your tyrants have done,
From the Rhine to the Danube arise in your might,
Be strong in the cause, and the battle is won,
And the prayers of the world shall ascend for the right.
O! land of the brave, in thy strife to be free,
The hopes of mankind shall be centred in thee.