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Home  »  Complete Poetical Works by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow  »  Flight the Fifth. The White Czar

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882). Complete Poetical Works. 1893.

Birds of Passage

Flight the Fifth. The White Czar

  • The White Czar is Peter the Great. Batyushka, Father dear, and Gosudar, Sovereign, are titles the Russian people are fond of giving to the Czar in their popular songs.H. W. L.


  • DOST thou see on the rampart’s height

    That wreath of mist, in the light

    Of the midnight moon? Oh, hist!

    It is not a wreath of mist;

    It is the Czar, the White Czar,

    Batyushka! Gosudar!

    He has heard, among the dead,

    The artillery roll o’erhead;

    The drums and the tramp of feet

    Of his soldiery in the street;

    He is awake! the White Czar,

    Batyushka! Gosudar!

    He has heard in the grave the cries

    Of his people: “Awake! arise!”

    He has rent the gold brocade

    Whereof his shroud was made;

    He is risen! the White Czar,

    Batyushka! Gosudar!

    From the Volga and the Don

    He has led his armies on,

    Over river and morass,

    Over desert and mountain pass;

    The Czar, the Orthodox Czar,

    Batyushka! Gosudar!

    He looks from the mountain-chain

    Toward the seas, that cleave in twain

    The continents; his hand

    Points southward o’er the land

    Of Roumili! O Czar,

    Batyushka! Gosudar!

    And the words break from his lips:

    “I am the builder of ships,

    And my ships shall sail these seas

    To the Pillars of Hercules!

    I say it; the White Czar,

    Batyushka! Gosudar!

    “The Bosphorus shall be free;

    It shall make room for me;

    And the gates of its water-streets

    Be unbarred before my fleets.

    I say it; the White Czar,

    Batyushka! Gosudar!

    “And the Christian shall no more

    Be crushed, as heretofore,

    Beneath thine iron rule,

    O Sultan of Istamboul!

    I swear it! I the Czar,

    Batyushka! Gosudar!”