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“Love of Country”

SIR WALTER SCOTT

Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832) was a popular Scottish historical novelist, playwright, and poet. He was considered the first English-language author to have a truly international career in his lifetime, with many contemporary readers in Europe, Australia, and North America. His novels and poetry are still read today, and include famous works like Ivanhoe and Rob Roy. The following poem affirms that it is not unmanly to be patriotic and love your country.

BREATHES THERE THE MAN, WITH SOUL SO DEAD,

Who never to himself hath said,

‘This is my own, my native land!’

Whose heart hath ne’er within him burn’d

As home his footsteps he hath turn’d

From wandering on a foreign strand?

If such there breathe, go, mark him well;

For him no Minstrel raptures swell;

High though his titles, proud his name,

Boundless his wealth as wish can claim;

Despite those titles, power, and pelf,

The wretch, concentred all in self,

Living, shall forfeit fair renown,

And, doubly dying, shall go down

To the vile dust, from whence he sprung,

Unwept, unhonour’d, and unsung.