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1819–1891

SUB PONDERE CRESCIT

James Russell Lowell

The hope of Truth grows stronger, day by day; I hear the soul of Man around me waking, Like a great sea, its frozen fetters breaking, And flinging up to heaven its sunlit spray,

Tossing huge continents in scornful play, And crushing them, with din of grinding thunder, That makes old emptinesses stare in wonder; The memory of a glory passed away

Lingers in every heart, as, in the shell, Resounds the bygone freedom of the sea, And every hour new signs of promise tell, That the great soul shall once again be free,

For high, and yet more high, the murmurs swell Of inward strife for truth and liberty.

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SUB PONDERE CRESCIT · James Russell Lowell · Poetry Cove