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.