Hunt and Lee, comps. The Book of the Sonnet. 1867.
VII. BerlinJohn Stuart Blackie (18091895)
S
Of each memorial man a soldier’s sword!
Fit emblem of a tame and subject land,
Mustered and marked by a drill-sergeant-lord.
And these long lines of formal streets, that go
In rank and file, by a great captain’s skill
Were marched into this cold and stately show,
Where public order palsies private will.
Order is strong; strong law the stars commands;
But birds by wings, and thought by freedom lives;
The crystalled stone compact and foursquare stands,
But man by surging self-born impulse strives.
Much have ye done, lords of exact Berlin,
But one thing fails,—the soul to your machine!