The poem
Brothers, let us glorify freedom's twilight — the great, darkening year. Into the seething waters of the night heavy forests of nets disappear. O Sun, judge, people, your light is rising over sombre years
Let us glorify the deadly weight the people's leader lifts with tears. Let us glorify the dark burden of fate, power's unbearable yoke of fears. How your ship is sinking, straight, he who has a heart, Time, hears.
We have bound swallows into battle legions - and we, we cannot see the sun: nature's boughs are living, twittering, moving, totally: through the nets —the thick twilight - now we cannot see the sun, and Earth floats free.
Let's try: a huge, clumsy, turn then of the creaking helm, and, see - Earth floats free. Take heart, O men. Slicing like a plough through the sea, Earth, to us, we know, even in Lethe's icy fen, has been worth a dozen heavens' eternity.