428
PARTISAN REVIEW
he didn't form the society
nor ratify the treaty;
it was not he who set the time
to guarantee the maximum
of disaster; and the famous plot
before its moment was cut short.
6.
The form of life, the form of dissidence
is by a hatchet-blow destroyed;
moveless lies the chief of excitement
and the voluble speech is mute.
Of those who long to live an hour longer,
who fight to live that hour close to death
-how recklessly and fiercely he cringed
from the ending he methodically sought!
Now moveless lies the chief of excitement
and the voluble speech is mute.
But praise to God there is an insurrection
of the heart and of the forebrain overworked
against the nervousness and the desire
and all humanity and policy;
not rallying to the requirement
-this is Freedom: can the tyranny
set itself up again? No no!
Shall not we, brothers, for a moment still
all living fears in praise of freedom death,
of peace and freedom death? Oh ought we not
declare a little act of peace for him
at last when he cannot dissent again?
Let's praise no uncertain victory,
no limited freedom and no armistice,
but absolute absolute absolute,
given to us and not made by us
