Daily life is with death but rife,

If there's not growth every hour.
Rally to war for the cause of right,
Sing 'neath the standard of honor bright,
Sail with faith in our God secure,
And strong endure!

OH, WHEN WILL YOU STAND FORTH?

(1872)

OH, when will you stand forth, who with strength can bring aid,

To strike down the injustice and lies

That my house have beset, and with malice blockade
Every pathway I out for my powers have laid,
And would hidden means find

With deceit and with hate

To set watch on my mind

And defile every plate

In my beautiful home where defenseless we wait?

Oh, when will you stand forth? This detraction through

years

For my people has made me an oaf,

Hides my poetry's fount in the fog of its fleers,

So it merely a pool of self-worship appears;

Like a clumsy troll I

Am contemned with affront,

Whom all "cultured" folk fly,

Or yet gather to hunt,

That their hunger of hate at a feast they may blunt.

When I publish a book: "It is half like himself;"
If I speak, 't is for vanity's sake.

What I build in the stage-world of fancy's free elf
Is but formed from my fatuous self.

When for faith I contend

And our land's ancient ways,
When the bridge I defend

From our fathers' great days,

'Tis because my poor breast no king's "Order" displays.

Oh, when will you stand forth, who shall sunder in twain All this slander so stifling and foul,

And shall sink in the sea all the terror insane

That they have of heart-passion and will-wielding brain,— And with love shall enfold

A soul's faith wide and deep,

That in want and in cold

Would its morning-watch keep

Undismayed, till the light all the host shall ensweep?

Come, thou Spirit of Norway, God-given of yore
In the stout giant-conquering Thor!

While the lightning thou ridest, thy answer's loud roar
Drowns the din that the dwarfs in defiance outpour;

Thou canst waken with might

All our longings to soar,

Thou canst strengthen in right

What united we swore,

When at Hafur thy standard in honor we bore.

Hail, thou Spirit of Norway! To think but of thee

Makes so small all the small things I felt.

To thy coming I hallow me, wholly to thee, And I humbly look up to thy face, unto thee, And I pray for a song

With thy tongue's stirring sound,

That I true may and strong

In the crisis be found,

To rouse heroes for thee on our forefathers'

ground.

GOD,

AT HANSTEEN'S BIER

(1873)

we thank Thee for the dower
Thou gavest Norway in his power,
Whom in the grave we now shall lay!
Starlit paths of thoughts that awe us
His spirit found; his deeds now draw us
To deeds, as mighty magnets play.
He was the first to stand

A light in our free land;

Of our present the first fair crown,
The first renown,

At Norway's feet he laid it down.

We his shining honors sharing,

And humble now his body bearing,

Shall sing with all the world our praise.
God, who ever guides our nation,

Hath called us to a high vocation

And shown where He our goal doth raise.
People of Norway, glad

Go on, as God us bade!

God has roused you; He knows whereto,
Though we are few.

With Him our future we shall view.

RALLYING SONG FOR FREEDOM IN
THE NORTH

TO "THE UNITED LEFT"

(Tirol, 1874)

DISHONORED by the higher, but loved by all the low,

Say, is it not the pathway that the new has to go? By those who ought to guard it betrayed, oh yes, trayed,

Say, is it not thus truth ever progress has made?

be

Some summer day beginning, a murmur in the grain,
It grows to be a roaring through the forests amain,
Until the sea shall bear it with thunder-trumpets' tone,
Where nothing, nothing's heard but it alone, it alone.

With Northern allies warring we take the Northern wing; For God and for our freedom-is the watchword we

bring.

That God, who gave us country and language, and gave all,

We find Him in our doing, if we hear and heed His call.

That doing we will forward, we many, although weak,
'Gainst all in fearless fighting, who the truth will not
seek:

Some summer day beginning, a murmur in the grain,
It goes now as a roaring through the forests amain.

'T will grow to be a storm ere men think that this can be, With voice of thunder sweeping o'er the infinite sea. What nation God's call follows, earth's greatest power shall show,

And carry all before it, though it high stand or low.

AT A BANQUET

GIVEN TO THE DEPUTATION OF THE SWEDISH RIKSDAG

TO THE CORONATION, IN TRONDHJEM, JULY 17, 1873
You chosen men we welcome here
From brothers near.

We welcome you to Olaf's town,

That Norway's greatest mem'ries crown,

Where ancient prowess looking down
With searching gaze,