AT THE SIGN OF THE LYRE.

New Zealand Times, Volume LVII, Issue 2549, 29 June 1895, Page 1 (Supplement)

AT THE SIGN OF THE LYRE.

ON THE LATE MASSACRES IN ARMENIA. Arm, arm ye brave, whoso hearts can feel The impulse manly souls reveal When foulest deeds are done ; Arise, put on the garb of war, Why stand ye loitering on the shore ? ’Tis Freedom’s cause ye shun. Why stand ye idling in your homos, While every bloody that roams With scimitar in hand Bedews the earth and stains the age . By deeds tliaf fill our breasts with rage, O’er all the Armenian land r O had I Hermit Peter’s voice, Or his who sang of Paradise And ” Piedmont treachery,” Above the policies of state I’d stir a band, and make it great By timely bravery. O western nations rise, and raze This house of crime from all men’s gaze With swift and speedy stroke ; Efface this crudest power that fills Armenia’s soil with bloody rills And deeds that should provoke A swift revenge from every arm Where bosoms beat with instincts warm And love of human-kind. O rise, 4*13 they who rose of old To wrest the cross from Paynim hold, And save the suffering hind That writhes beneath the talonod claw And cruelly faugod Osmauli maw, That rends the tender thing. Rise now, and all your powers unfold, Till from the heights this monster’s rolled, And every art shall spring Where naught but vile oppression stands, A foul disgrace to Christian lands. O hear mo say once more, Arise in all your splendid might, Exert each brain and arm till Right Prevails from shore to shore. Till o’er Armenian hills and 'lalos The peasant’s peaceful care prevails And beautifies the earth, When base Oppression’s reign is o’er, And Turkish treachery no move, But Labour joined with Mirth. J.T.W. Wellington, 3rd May, 1895.