Select Poetry.

Thames Star, Volume XIV, Issue 4562, 18 August 1883, Page 1

Select Poetry.

EUSSIAtf BALLAD

[The following ballad, translated,from the Eussian, is called in that language " Kartinka "or " The Little Print." It was written after the promulgation of the manifesto of February 19, 1861, emancii pating the serfs. It may serve to illustrate the position, and to some extent the feelings, of the fiussian peasants as described by Stepniak in his recent work on underground Eussia. The. metre is identical with that in the original.] In the peasant hut the embers Flicker as they fade: See! the peasants all have gathered Round the peasant maid. She with tiny fingers tracing Word by word doth spell: . While the strongmen round the maiden Listening mark her well. Thoughtfully the peasants listen; , Listen silently: Save when someone bids a mother Stay her infant's cry; ,: ' Then the mother gives the infant Milk from out her breast: , , That the farthest as the nearest ," Hear the tidings blest. ' v On the stove the sire, bedridden Many, many years, Nods his head and gazes wistful, E'en though nought he hears. And why hang they on the maiden ? Speaketh she so well ? Nay, but she of all the number. She alone can spell. , And so she, the simple maiden, • Bids the eldest hear Tidings of beloved freedom, Tidings strange and dear. " ' Freedom! what that word betokens, She nor they can say, But they feel the dawn approaching Of a bright new day. Broken! dawn it is breaking, Darkness flies apace: ■ And your children see the brightness Flash from face to face; Let the darkness fret in anger;— Day is mounting high: And I catch her first effulgence With prophetic eye. From thy tiny head she flashes, . Flashes from each look, As she spells, the simple maiden, Words from that strange book. Freedom, brothers, only freedom, Is the nearest way, Unto thought, and thought illumined By eternal day.