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The Ballad of Splendid Silence
In Memoriam. Ferencz Renyi, Hungary, 1848.
- THIS is the story of Renyi,
- And when you have heard it through,
- Pray God He send no trial like his
- To try the faith of you.
- And if is doom be upon you,
- Then may God grant you this:
- To fight as good a fight as he,
- And win a crown like his!
- He was strong and handsome and happy,
- Beloved and loving and young,
- With eyes that men set their trust in,
- And the fire of his soul on his tongue.
- He loved the Spirit of Freedom,
- He hated his country’s wrongs,
- He told the patriots’ stories,
- And he sang the patriots’ songs.
- With mother and sister and sweetheart
- His safe glad days went by,
- Till Hungary called on her children
- To arm, to fight, and to die.
- ‘Good‐bye to mother and sister;
- Good‐bye to my sweet sweetheart;
- I fight for you—you pray for me,
- We shall not be apart!’
- The women prayed at the sunrise,
- They prayed when the skies grew dim;
- His mother and sister prayed for the Cause,
- His sweetheart prayed for him.
- For mother and sister and sweetheart,
- But most for the true and the right,
- He low laid down his own life’s hopes
- And led his men to fight.
- Skirmishing, scouting, and spying,
- Night‐watch, attack, and defeat;
- The resolute, desperate fighting,
- The hopeless, reluctant retreat;
- Ruin, defeat, and disaster,
- Capture and loss and despair,
- And half of his regiment hidden,
- And only this man knew where!
- Prisoner, fast bound, sore wounded,
- They brought him roughly along
- With his body as weak and broken
- As his spirit was steadfast and strong
- Before the Austrian general—
- ‘Where are your men?’ he heard;
- He looked black death in its ugly face
- And answered never a word.
- ‘Where is your regiment hidden?
- Speak—you are pardoned straight.
- No? We can find dumb dogs their tongues,
- You rebel reprobate!’
- They dragged his mother and sister
- Into the open hall.
- ‘Give up your men, if these women
- Are dear to your heart at all!’
- He turned his eyes on his sister,
- And spoke to her silently;
- She answered his silence with speaking,
- And straight from her heart spoke she:
- ‘If you betray your country,
- You spit on our father’s name;
- And what is life without honor?
- And what is death without shame?’
- He looked on the mother who bore him
- And her smile was splendid to see;
- He hid his face with a bitter cry,
- But never a word said he.
- ‘Son of my body—be silent!
- My days at the best are few,
- And I shall know how to give them,
- Son of my heart, for you!’
- He shivered, set teeth, kept silence:
- With never a plaint or cry
- The women were slain before him,
- And he stood and he saw them die.
- Then they brought his lovely beloved,
- Desire of his heart and eyes.
- ‘Say where your men are hidden,
- Or say that your sweetheart dies.’
- She threw her arms about him,
- She laid her lips to his cheek:
- ‘Speak! for my sake who love you!
- Love, for our love’s sake, speak!’
- His eyes are burning and shining
- With the fire of immortal disgrace—
- Christ! walk with him in the furnace
- And strengthen his soul for a space!
- Long he looked at his sweetheart
- His eyes grew tender and wet;
- Closely he held her to him,
- His lips to her lips were set.
- ‘See! I am young! I love you!
- I am not ready to die!
- One word makes us happy for ever,
- Together, you and I.’
- Her arms round his neck were clinging,
- Her lips his cold lips caressed;
- He suddenly flung her from him,
- And folded his arms to his breast.
- She wept, she shrieked, she struggled,
- She cursed him in God’s name,
- For the woe of her early dying,
- And for her dying’s shame.
- And still he stood, and his silence
- Like fire was burning him through,
- Then the muskets spoke once, through his silence,
- And she was silent too.
- They turned to torture him further,
- If further might be—in vain;
- He had held his peace in that threefold hell,
- And he never spoke again:
- The end of the uttermost anguish
- The soul of the man could bear,
- Was the madhouse where tyrants bury
- The broken shells of despair.
- By the heaven renounced in her service,
- By the hell thrice braved for her sake,
- By the years of madness and silence,
- By the heart that her enemies brake;
* * * *
- By the young life’s promise ruined,
- By the years of too living death,
- By the passionate self‐devotion,
- And the absolute perfect faith;
- By the thousands who know such anguish,
- And share such divine renown,
- Who have borne them bravely in battle,
- And won the conqueror’s crown;
- By the torments her children have suffered,
- By the blood that her martyrs will give,
- By the deaths men have died at her altars,
- By these shall our Liberty live!
- In the silence of tears, in the burden
- Of the wrongs we some day will repay,
- Live the brothers who died in all ages
- For the Freedom we live for to‐day!
1886.
