Strength give thee, like an ocean's vast expanse

Off mountain cliffs, the generations all,

Not whirling in their narrow rings of foam,

But as a river forward. Soaring France!

Now is Humanity on trial in thee:

Now may'st thou gather humankind in fee:

Now prove that Reason is a quenchless scroll;

Make of calamity thine aureole,

And bleeding lead us thro' the troubles of the sea.