MY NATIVE LAND.

I love my land, but with a love so strange

That reason over it no victory knows.

Her glory, bought in bloodshed’s stern exchange,

Her ever-confident and proud repose,

The sacred annals of her ancient might,

Arouse in me no fancies of delight.

Nay! but I love (the why I cannot say)

Her cold steppes in their silent majesty,

Her waving woodlands in their boundless play,