It only sleeps awhile....”
In elegant yet forcible lyrics he invites his countrymen to manfully follow the path of progress. Tsereteli has written a great historical poem called “Torniki,” and is, besides, an orator and publicist of the first rank.
Of the same school is Prince Ilia Chavchavadze (born 1837), who is in many respects the most remarkable man that Georgia possesses. All his poems, and indeed all his work, whether as a poet, a novelist, a journalist, an orator, or a financier, breathe a spirit of the loftiest patriotism. The return of spring and the awakening of bird and flower to fuller life are to him a reminder of the long-delayed awakening of his beloved land; his elegies on the Kura, the Aragva, the Alazana are all full of the same feeling. It is, however, in “Lines to the Georgian mother” that he most clearly expresses his ideas; after reminding the matrons of Georgia how they have served their country in times past, cheerfully sending their sons forth to the fight and sustaining their courage in the hour of misfortune, he says:—
“... But why should we shed idle tears
For glory that will ne’er return?
The ever-flowing stream of years
Leaves us no time to idly mourn.
“’Tis ours to tread an untried path,
‘Tis ours the future to prepare.
If forward thou dost urge thy sons,