Independence

My life more civil is and free
       
⁠ Than any civil polity.



Ye princes, keep your realms
⁠   
And circumscribèd power,

Not wide as are my dreams,

⁠ ⁠   Nor rich as is this hour.



What can ye give which I have not?

What can ye take which I have got?

⁠ ⁠   
⁠Can ye defend the dangerless?

⁠ ⁠   Can ye inherit nakedness?

To all true wants Time’s ear is deaf,

Penurious States lend no relief

⁠ ⁠   Out of their pelf:
    But a free soul—thank God—

⁠ ⁠   ⁠Can help itself.



⁠ ⁠  
⁠Be sure your fate

Doth keep apart its state,—

Not linked with any band,

Even the noblest in the land,—



In tented fields with cloth of gold

⁠ ⁠    No place doth hold,

But is more chivalrous than they are,

 ⁠    ⁠And sigheth for a nobler war;

⁠ ⁠⁠    A finer strain its trumpet rings,

 ⁠⁠⁠    A brighter gleam its armor flings.

The life that I aspire to live,

⁠    
No man proposeth me;

No trade upon the street

⁠ ⁠⁠   Wears its emblazonry.